My Little Sister
by Genocide Never Again
Summary: Bryan swore never to go back to that house but he has to to get something he left. What will he do when an eight-year-old girl answers the door instead of his mother? Rated for slight swearing.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade.

* * *

**_Chapter One_**

"Bryan?"

"Yes Tala?"

"Why are we here? I thought you said you never wanted to see this house again." Bryan sighed. What Tala had said was right and wrong at the same time. He didn't mind the house but he hated it when his mother was in it. The only reason he had come was because there was some stuff that he had left here from his childhood before he joined BioVolt that he wanted back and he told his boyfriend this. The two lovers walked up to the dilapidated house and knocked on the door, just in case Bryans' mother was in. They were surprised, however, when the door was opened not by a woman in her early forties but instead by a little girl who couldn't have been any older than eight at the most. They stared at each other for a few moments before the girl decided to break the silence.

"Um…can I help you?" she asked softly, half-hiding behind the door. Knowing that Bryan wasn't very good at handling people, especially girls, Tala took control of the situation. He knelt down so that he was on the same level as the girl and held out his hand.

"Hey, my name's Tala Ivanov. What's yours?" he asked softly, sensing that the girl didn't like loud voices. She looked at him nervously before hesitantly taking his hand.

"I'm Ellie Kuznetsov."

* * *

**AN: **Sorry it's a bit short. This is just a test chapter to see if people like it and/or want to read more of it. If you do like please review and tell me and if you don't still review and tell me.

Ja ne!


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade. I do, however, own this plot and any OC's I use unless stated otherwise.

* * *

**_Chapter Two_**

"I'm Ellie Kuznetsov."

Tala blinked in surprise and Bryans' head whipped round from where at had been looking to gaze at the girl. She quickly withdrew her hand from Talas' and hid behind the door even more so that you could only see her head and right arm. She thought that she had done something wrong and fear was evident on her eyes. Bryan knelt down next to Tala.

"Are you sure about that?" he asked. Ellie nodded.

"Is your mother called Irene Kuznetsov?" Another nod. Bryan frowned slightly in confusion and looked again at Ellie. She had the same colour hair and eyes as him and his mother was an alcoholic so it would've been easy for some guy to knock her up.

"Does your mother ever mention you having a brother?" Bryan asked. He needed to know. If Ellie really was his sister then he didn't care about his tough guy image, all he cared about was getting the small girl out of this house. He didn't trust his mother any more than a worm trusts a bird.

"Sometimes when she has had a lot to drink. Why do you ask?" Ellie asked perplexedly, stepping away from the door so she could get a better look at the asker of unusual question. Tala let out a small gasp and Bryans' eyes hardened at the sight of the girl.

She was dressed in a grey raggedy T-shirt that was too big for her slim frame and was hanging off her left shoulder and a pair of equally raggedly black shorts. Though it wasn't noticeable to the untrained eye, Ellie was shivering slightly. What really took the boys though were the bandages and the large bruise on her left cheek. Both her feet were bandage neatly and her left arm was bandaged not so neatly and Tala was sure he could see a bandage peeking out from underneath the sleeve on her right arm.

Ellie tilted her head to the side, puzzled as to why the two males were acting so strangely. She was about to ask what was wrong when a huge gust of wind swept into the house causing her to shiver violently. Tala immediately shrugged his jacket off and draped it over the smaller girls' shoulders. Her small hands fisted the warm material and brought it closer to her body. She gave Tala a small smile of thanks which he returned.

'I can't believe she did this. I mean, I always knew she was a mean old bitch but I never thought she would actually hurt someone this bad, especially someone as small and innocent as Ellie. The most I ever got was a slap! Looks like I'm going to have to take her with me. I just hope Tala agrees…' Bryan thought, glancing at his red-haired lover. As if knowing what he was thinking, he gave the falcon a small nod. He turned his gaze to small girl in front of him.

"Ellie," he called softly, attracting the girls' attention, "My name is Bryan Kuznetsov and, apparently, I'm your older brother. If you want, Tala and I can take you away so you never have to see our mother again." Ellies' eyes widened slightly and she bit her lip. She didn't know what to do. Sure, she wanted to leave her mother but what if her brother was just as bad. Also, what if he wasn't her brother? But then again, this seemed a bit too elaborate for it to have been made up. She was just an eight year old girl who didn't even go to school because her mother didn't let her. She looked at the red head next to her supposed brother. Tala seemed trust worthy so if he thought Bryan was okay then so did she. She looked at Bryan again and hesitantly nodded.

"Okay…" she whispered. Bryan let out a sigh of relief and Tala stood up and picked up the small girl. Ellie looked a little surprised at the sudden ascent but soon got used to it and nuzzled into the red head's chest. Tala smiled softly. People always said that the Russians were heartless but, in fact, it was quite the opposite. When they were alone they acted just like everyone else but they couldn't do that in front of Boris.

"Ellie, we're just going to get some stuff and then we can go, okay?" Bryan informed the girl. She nodded and Bryan started walking to the stairs, Tala and Ellie right behind him. He walked into what used to be his old room and was now Ellie's room. Bryan walked to the bed and knelt down beside, feeling the floor as he did. He quickly found the loose board and lifted it up. He wasn't surprised to see another box in there that obviously belonged to Ellie. He scooped up both of the boxes and put the floorboard back in place before standing up and turning round to see Tala helping Ellie put on some shoes he had found in the almost empty wardrobe.

"I've got what I wanted so we can go now." Tala and Ellie looked up and nodded. Ellie hopped of the bed and Tale took her hand gently. He led the small girl outside and into the car that they had borrowed from Kai. Tala climbed into the back with Ellie whilst Bryan went to the driver's seat. Bryan handed the two boxes to Tala and started the car. Tala looked at Ellie and was only mildly surprised to see her almost asleep.

'It is almost eight p.m. and she is only little after all' he thought fondly before turning to look at the two almost identical boxes on his lap. He knew which was which because Ellie had quite clearly marked hers in red crayon. He glanced at the small girl before slowly opening the box. He was quite surprised to see several books in different languages and a couple of dictionaries as well as a red beyblade.

"Looks like she quite good at languages." Tala commented, picking up several of the books. Bryan glanced at the rear view mirror and saw the books he was holding. He gave a small grunt and made a mental note to ask Spencer where he put the newspapers. Tala replaced the books in the box and the rest of the journey was rode in silence.

_Hiwatari Manor_

The clock chimed half-past eight when Spencer, Ian and Kai heard the car pull up outside. They went to spacious hallway to greet Tala and Bryan as they came in but were struck dumb (not that you could see it) when they saw a small girl nestled soundly in Bryan's arms. Ellie had fallen asleep in the car and neither Bryan nor Tala had had the heart to wake her. Ian was the first to break the silence.

"Um…Bryan? Why is there a girl in your arms? I thought you hated girls…" Ian trailed off, obviously confused. Bryan sighed. He so did not want to do this. He turned to his koi.

"Tala, you explain. I'm going to put Ellie to bed." he said, turning round and heading up the stairs as he did so. Tala growled softly at his lover before turning to the three confused individuals in front of him. He sighed. He so didn't want to do this either.

"To make a long story short, Ellie is Bryan's little sister. We don't trust her mother to take care of her properly so we're going to look after her, okay? Any questions?" Tala said.

"What size is she?" came a voice from behind Tala. He turned round to see Murielle, Kai's maid and old nanny.

"Um, she comes up to about my waist and is quite slim." Tala offered hoping it would be enough.

"What about shoe size?"

"Size two I think…" Murielle nodded before waddling off muttering about how nice it was to finally have a girl in the house and butterflies and foxes for some reason. The four watched her until she was out of sight.

"Kai, I know she's your old nanny and all but she's still weird." Spencer commented. Kai just hn'ed before turning on his heel and stalking out of the room after Murielle. He stopped at the door and looked over his shoulder at Tala.

"She can stay." He said shortly before exiting the room. Tala smiled and followed his lover up the stairs, already having a vague idea where he was.

_In the bedroom next to Bryan and Tala's_

Meanwhile, Bryan had carried Ellie to the room that was to the left of his. He laid her down gently before going to the ensuite bathroom. He took out some bandages and antiseptic cream from the medicine cabinet before entering the bedroom again. He set the objects on the bedside table and sat on the bed next to Ellie, gently grasping her shoulders and shaking her.

"Ellie…wake up…. Ellie…" he called out softly. The little girl stirred and her eyes fluttered open. She sat up and gave a small yawn before turning to Bryan,

"Is it morning already?" she asked, rubbing her eyes.

"No, I just want to put some new bandages on." Bryan told her, unwrapping the bandage on her left arm and grabbing the antiseptic cream. "Okay, this may sting a little." He said. Ellie nodded, too tired to really care. Bryan quickly and methodically re-bandaged her limbs before slipping her under the covers. Ellie fell asleep again, almost as soon as her head hit the pillows, only just managing to give Bryan a small smile before she entered the realm of the unconscious. Bryan stood and silently left the room. He shut the door softly and turned round to find Tala right in front of him. His eyes widened almost imperceptibly and he pushed his lover back slightly.

"How is she?" Tala asked, leaning against the falcon.

"She's sleeping and she didn't freak out when I changed her bandages. Gods Tala, some of the wounds on her arms! I didn't know my mother was capable of anything like that!" Bryan was quite clearly upset. Even though he had been trained to show no emotion but hate, the few weeks he had spent out of the Abbey had done him good and nobody in their right minds could be mean to someone as small and sweet as Ellie. Tala gave his lover a small kiss on the lips.

"Don't worry Bryan. She is now far away from her mother and those cuts will heal in time. Now come on, I've got a special surprise for you." Tala said in a sultry voice. Bryan visibly perked up and followed his koibito to their bedroom.

* * *

Murielle is dedicated to my ski instructor who put up with me falling of the chair lift and my friend constantly falling over for six days. She was a brave woman.

Now I would like to say a MASSIVE thank you to The Cattan Wolf and **marishka91 **for reviewing, **AnnieAngel93** for favouriting and to **marishka91** (again) and **Rejiita** for putting this on story alert. Thank you!!!

The next installment should be out sometime next week hopefully.

Ja ne!


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade. I do however own Ellie, Murielle and Kyuuborg.

* * *

**_Chapter Three_**

Ellie scrunched up her face briefly before opening her eyes. She sat up, blinking a bit, trying to gain her bearings. Memories from the previous evening came rushing back to her and she looked round for her box. She saw it on the desk on the other side of the room. She got out of bed and walked swiftly to the other side of the room. When she got there, however, she saw a small pile of clothes on top of the chair. Ellie blinked confusedly at them for a second before shyly picking them up. She quickly changed so that she was wearing blue jeans, a red long-sleeved T-shirt, white body warmer and red and white trainers. After she finished getting dressed she quickly brushed her hair and pulled it back into a loose plait with a red ribbon she found on the chair.

She was about to leave the room when she quickly ran back to the desk and took the beyblade out of the box that was on it. She pocketed the blade and made her way out of the room.

She found the stairs easily enough but after that she had no idea where to go. She bit her lip and took a step backwards into someone's legs. She looked up into crimson eyes and turned round to get a proper look at the boy. He had grey and blue hair and wore a scarf even though he was indoors. For some reason, he reminded Ellie of a phoenix in a book she had read.

"I suppose your Ellie?" She nodded. "I'm Kai. Come on, I'll take you to where the kitchen is." Ellie stood still for a moment before hastily following Kai. She followed him through a myriad of corridors that she only just remembered before arriving at the kitchen.

"Spencer, can you look after Ellie? I need to do some training." Kai called out to the guy before the oven. Spencer turned round and nodded to Kai and smiled at Ellie. Ellie instinctively hid behind Kai's legs. The boy rolled his eyes and left the kitchen, quickly disappearing round a corner. Ellie looked at Spencer again and hesitantly stepped inside. She walked over to the island in the middle and climbed on to one of the bar stools. She looked at the counter and saw a newspaper nearby. She looked at Spencer, who was once again looking at the oven, focusing on whatever he was making. Ellie leaned over and grabbed the newspaper, unfolding it so she could read the front page. On the front page was an article about the recent World Beyblade Competition. She immediately became engrossed in the story and didn't notice when a boy with a big nose came in and started conversing with his friend. It was only when he started poking her did she look up. She sent the boy a small glare. She _hated_ it when people interrupted her when she was reading.

"With that glare your definitely Bryan's sister." The boy commented. Ellie stopped glaring but it was obvious she wanted to get back to reading. "Anyways, I'm Ian the greatest, handsomest and smartest blader to ever walk this Earth." Ian boasted. Spencer rolled his eyes and bopped the boy lightly on the head.

"Ignore him. He has a bit of a big ego." Spencer told the girl.

"In my opinion, Cameron would've been a better name for him." Ellie said, returning to the paper.

"Why's that?" Ian inquired suspiciously.

"Cameron means big nose." Ellie replied matter-of-factly, not looking up from the paper. Ian yelled in protest and Spencer laughed.

"Why's everybody being so noisy so early in the morning?" Tala moaned as he walked in, Bryan right behind him.

"Bryan, your sister is evil!" Ian whined. "She insulted the size of my nose!" Tala raised an eyebrow and Bryan smirked.

"I'm liking her more and more." Bryan commented sitting down, Tala next to him. Spencer placed a cup of coffee in front of each of them. "By the way, when did Ellie wake up?"

"Kai walked in with her about thirty minutes ago." Spencer informed him. "She's been reading the newspaper ever since except for when she was annoying Ian. By the way, breakfast is ready." Spencer put a plate of chocolate chip pancakes in front of each of them. Ellie looked mildly surprised when the newspaper was moved from in front of her and replaced with a plate of pancakes. She looked up and saw Spencer placing the newspaper to the side for later reading. She smiled shyly.

"Thank you." She said.

"Sure, when he interrupts you he gets a smile but when _I_ interrupt you I get a glare." Ian protested.

"Oh be quiet Cameron." Ellie said starting on the plate of poor, unsuspecting pancakes. Ian squawked in protest and Spencer started laughing again whilst Bryan and Tala looked on confuzzled. This is the sight that greeted Kai when he walked in to get a cup of coffee. He raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not even going to ask." He deadpanned, turning on the coffee machine.

"Morning, Kai." Tala greeted the younger boy.

"Hn." Kai 'replied', drumming his fingers impatiently on the counter as waited for the damn machine to dispense the liquid of gods a.k.a. coffee.

Breakfast continued in a similar fashion until every last scrap of food was eaten. Spencer collected the plates and washed them quickly before sitting down.

"What's the plan for today, captain?" Ian queried. Tala tapped his chin thoughtfully.

"We train until lunchtime and then we're going shopping." He declared. "We'll meet in the training room in half an hour." They all nodded and got up, going to their separate rooms to get ready. Tala turned to Ellie. "Ellie, you can watch us train but it might be a bit boring for you so I suggest you take this." He said, giving her the newspaper she had been reading earlier. Her face lit up.

"Thank you Tala!" she whispered, taking the offered bundle of paper of him. Tala just smiled back.

"Come on, we'd better get ready. I need to set a good example for the rest of my team mates." Tala said in a mock self-sacrificing voice. Ellie giggled and nodded. Tala started to lead her out of the room when she broke away and ran back into the kitchen. She grabbed Bryan's hand and dragged him out of the kitchen much to his surprise.

"Come on Bryan! You can't be late!" Bryan smiled gently and picked the girl up. She immediately grabbed his shirt and pressed her face against his chest, the sudden movement surprising and scaring her tiny bit. Bryan laughed softly and apologised before following his lover.

_Half an hour later_

"Bryan, I want you to work on your defence so I want you to work with Spencer. Ian you need to work on your attack so you're with me. Kai, since technically you're not part of the team you can do anything you want but I still expect you to train, okay?" Kai hn'ed and Tala rolled his eyes. "Good enough for me." They paired off except for Kai, who went to a spare dish, and Ellie, who was reading her newspaper on a nearby bench.

The newspaper was quite a thick one so it took Ellie a while to read it. Her vocabulary might've been better than a normal eight year olds but she still had some difficulty reading some of the bigger words. When she finished, she carefully folded the newspaper back up and placed on the bench beside her. She watched her brother and his friends practice but lunch came and went and she was starting to get a bit bored. Beyblading was exciting but when you were watching the same moves being repeated over and over again one can tend to get a bit boring.

Ellie tried to watch and be patient but she was bored and was starting to get a bit hungry. This is why when she heard faint music coming from another part of the house, she stood up and left quietly.

The little girl walked through the corridors, the plush carpet soaking up the noise usually made by her shoes. She walked slowly, trying to pinpoint the exact location of where the music was coming from. She find herself in the kitchen but instead of it being empty like when she left it, there was a plump, old woman standing before the sink, a small radio playing the music that had caught the small girl's attention.

Ellie hesitantly stepped into the kitchen, wincing slightly at the loud noise her shoes made against the tiled floor. The woman turned round startled and Ellie shrank back a tiny bit. The old woman smiled softly and walked over to her.

"So you're Miss Ellie? Master Bryan was right when he said you were small." The woman said, bending down and taking Ellie's chin softly so she could get a proper look at her face. "Oh my! I haven't seen a bruise like this since the day Master Kai fell down the stairs!" Ellie looked away uncomfortably. She knew not all women were mean like her mother, her old neighbour was a testament to that, but she still felt a little nervous around strange women.

"By the way, I am Murielle, Master Kai's maid. I'm glad to see the clothes fit alright. I had a feeling you would look good in red." Murielle finally introduced herself. Ellie looked at her, remembering how the clothes she was wearing had suddenly appeared that morning and realising that it was she who had place the garments on the chair.

"Thank you for the clothes, Ms Murielle. They are very nice." Ellie thanked the old lady softly. The old woman's got bigger if possible.

"Don't bother with the Ms, just call me Murielle. And don't worry about the clothes; I've been wanting a girl in this house for as long as I can remember." Murielle told the girl. "Now, I'm betting those boys are beyblading and forget all about you, didn't they?"

"They didn't forget about me! They were just really engrossed in what they were doing…really, really engrossed…" Ellie argued back weakly even though what Murielle said was true. They had forgotten all about her. 'They wouldn't just forget about me just like that would they? I mean, Bryan was the one that suggested I come here and Tala was really nice and kind to me. They wouldn't just forget me would they?' Ellie was starting to feel a bit dizzy. She didn't know why but being so confused and scared certainly wasn't helping.

"Uh-huh. I bet the-Ellie? What's wrong?" Murielle asked noticing the girl growing slightly pale and swaying a tiny bit. She was about to ask what was wrong again when Ellie's eyes closed and she fell into the old woman's arms. "Ellie!" Murielle shook her slightly but got no response. She moved her slightly before stopping when she saw on Ellie's left hand. Blood was running down it. She gasped softly before gently picking up the light girl. She brought her to a nearby bathroom and carefully set her down on the toilet. She removed the bandages from the cabinet and rolled up the jumper's sleeve. She quickly changed the bloody bandage on the young girl's arm before doing her legs which weren't as serious but still needed to be looked after carefully whilst they healed.

Murielle picked up the slight form and carried Ellie up to her bedroom, tucking her in and leaving until dinnertime when she would go and wake the girl up. She closed the girl softly before going back downstairs to the training room.

She walked into the spacious room and stalked over to the beydish that Bryan was practicing a new move in.

"Master Bryan, there is something I must discuss with you. Do you mind stepping into the hallway?" Bryan quickly got his blade and practically jogged into the hallway. It was always better to do things like this as quickly as possible; if Murielle said to do something, then get it done quickly or else. Bryan still remembered when he first met her and had refused to do what she had asked. Boy, for an old person she could do one mean half-nelson.

"Master Bryan, do you know where your sister is?" Murielle questioned seriously.

"She's in the training room reading, isn't she?" Bryan asked slightly confused and starting to get slightly worried. How long had it been since he had last checked on Ellie?

"She might've been there when you last deigned to check on her but she isn't now! I know you aren't used to looking after people other than yourself but you do have to be extremely observant when you want to be which is why I want to know why you didn't notice before?" Murielle said tempestuously.

"Murielle, what are you talking about? Is something wrong with Ellie? Where is she?" Bryan asked frenziedly.

"She was bleeding rather heavily and she is resting in her room right now." As soon as the words were out of the woman's mouth, Bryan was off. Usually he wouldn't have been so worked up about a _girl_ but Ellie was his sister and even though he had only known her for about a day, she had wormed her way into his heart and he felt the need to protect her.

He quickly made it to her room and opened the door noiselessly. He quietly made his way to the bedside and knelt down beside the slumbering form that was Ellie. Bryan was glad to see that she looked alright albeit being slightly paler than usual. He falteringly placed a gentle hand on Ellie's cheek and stroked it tenderly. She leaned into the soft touch and her eyes slowly fluttered open. Ellie gave Bryan a shy smile which he returned.

"Are you okay?" Bryan asked. Ellie nodded before letting out a small yawn. Bryan slipped his shoes off and climbed under the covers. He gently took the small girl into his arms and she immediately snuggled into his embrace. He stroked her hair lightly, successfully lulling her back to sleep and also somehow sending himself to sleep.

_Sometime later…_

Tala looked into the quiet room and smiled softly. Bryan had his arms wrapped round Ellie's slight form and Ellie was leaning against his chest, using it as her pillow, and both were sleeping soundly. Tala turned to leave when something on the floor caught his eye. He picked it up and looked at it carefully before a small smirk flittered across his face and he walked out of the room, pocketing the object as he went.

There was no way they would forget Ellie again the next morning…


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade.

* * *

**_Chapter Four_**

Bryan stirred as the sun hit his face and forced himself to open his eyes. He grumbled and looked down when he felt a slight movement. Seemed the sun had woken Ellie as well. He slipped out of the king-sized bed and padded over to the wardrobe to get some clothes for Ellie. He turned to see Ellie still waking up. He placed the clothes on the bed and after changing her bandages, he left the room. He was glad to see her injuries were healing well.

'What happened yesterday must've happened due to her jarring her arm or something…' he thought as he changed his clothes (he had fallen asleep in his clothes yesterday). He left his room and saw Ellie leaving her room, a small fist rubbing her sleepy eyes. They walked downstairs and were about to go to the kitchen when they were stopped by a grinning Tala.

"Ellie, if you don't mind, I want to talk to you. In private." He added when he saw Bryan about to follow him to where he was already dragging Ellie. "Don't worry, you'll get her back in one piece!" Tala called over his shoulder as he rounded a corner. He continued to drag Ellie along, the girl only just staying upright, as he walked through the multiple corridors.

Ellie bumped into Tala when he stopped suddenly. She stepped back rubbing her sore nose and looked round, realising that they were in the training room. She looked at Tala confusedly and saw that he was holding out her blade and launcher. She quickly took them of him and was surprised to see that her blade had been modified. It seemed to be made of a lighter metal than before and the attack ring was sharper. She looked at Tala her brow creased with confusion.

"Your blade was pretty scratched up. I want to see if it's because you've gotten into some intense battles or if you are just a sore loser." Tala said, sensing her confusion. "Don't worry, I'll go easy on you." Ellie frowned. Nobody talked about her blading skills like that!

"Fine." She said frostily, stepping up to dish. She readied her launcher and Tala readied his own gun-shaped launcher.

"3…2…1…LET IT RIP!" Ellie and Tala launched their blades. Their blades met in the middle before rebounding of each other and landing in the dish. The blades circled the dish whilst their owners looked for an opening. Tala quickly spotted one. Ellie's left side was completely unprotected.

"Go Wolborg!" Tala called out, his blade immediately obeying his command and charging towards the red blade. Ellie smirked. He had fallen for her trap.

"Kyuuborg, dodge, hit and run!" Ellie ordered her blade. The red beyblade dodged at the last minute, quickly swung round to land a hit on Wolborg before quickly running away again. Tala growled, cursing his own stupidity. She was better than he thought.

"Come on Tala, I thought you used to be world champion. With the way you're blading right now it's no wonder that Granger kid beat you!" Ellie taunted, letting her more playful and sadistic side come through for once.

"You might say that now but I am only using but a mere fraction of my power but if you insist. Wolborg, Ice Blizzard!" Tala commanded. A large white wolf covered with icy blue ice shards came out of the white blade. The bitbeast called up an icy blizzard (well duh) which made Ellie shiver furiously and hugged herself to try to keep warm and caused her blade to slow down a wobble a tiny bit. Ellie willed her blade to stay up right and it thankfully did. She sent Tala a slight glare.

"Two can play at that game. Kyuuborg, come on out!" Out of the red beyblade came a nine-tailed fox with violent orange-coloured fur. Dark black bands were wrapped around all four paws, neck and head, standing out against the vibrant coat. "Use _Hanabi No Yoru_!"

The red blade seemed to be surrounded by flames as was the mighty fox. Kyuuborg charged towards Wolborg before abruptly disappearing. Tala looked all over the beydish but couldn't see the red blade anywhere. All of a sudden the red blade came careening towards Wolborg. Kyuuborg hit the wolf, causing a flurry of sparks to appear on contact before disappearing again. This happened about four more times before the red blade stayed visible for good. Unfortunately for Ellie, Wolborg was still spinning and appeared to have sustained little damage. Ellie, on the other hand, was exhausted. Tala saw this and quickly used it to his advantage, having Wolborg hit Kyuuborg with enough force to send the blade flying out of the dish, pass Ellie and into the wall behind. Ellie stood there in shock for a couple of seconds before turning round slowly to look at her fallen blade. She quickly ran towards her blade and picked it up. It gave her a reassuring glow and she held to close to her chest. It was the first time she had ever lost.

Ellie looked up when she felt a hand on her shoulder to see Tala smiling down at her. She pocketed her beyblade and picked her up gently. She laid her head on his shoulder tiredly, the battle having drained her completely.

"You're quite a good blader despite being so young. Where did you learn how to blade like that?" Tala inquired.

"My old neighbour gave me my first beyblade when I was about five and taught me the basics. I started of blading against the other kids on my street and as I got older I started to go farther afield, going to local parks to take on older kids. When I was about seven and a half, I was blading and all off a sudden there was this big flash of light and when I looked at my blade, I had Kyuuborg." Ellie explained as Tala carried her slowly out of the training room and towards the kitchen.

"What about school? Did you battle anybody at school?" Tala asked. Ellie looked away shamefacedly.

"I didn't go to school. My mama wouldn't let me." Ellie said quietly.

"But you're so good at Russian!" Tala exclaimed.

"My neighbour used to be a translator and she taught me everything she knew about languages and a tiny bit about maths and science but I'm only really good at languages." Ellie said, laying her head on Tala's shoulder again.

"You must be really smart to be able to know so many different languages. Most eight-year-olds can barely do Russian and they are Russian!" Tala commented. Ellie shook her head.

"Mama always said that it was futile to know a different language since I would never leave this country and that I should stick to useful things like maths and science." Ellie whispered. Tala frowned. It seemed like the Kuznetsovs' mother had a much bigger influence on Ellie's life than they had first imagined. He subconsciously tightened his grip on Ellie. She looked at him.

"Tala?" She called out uncertainly.

"Ellie, forget everything your mother ever said to you. She was an idiot who didn't know how to do anything but drink and get laid. Forget you even knew her!" Tala all but shouted, his grip tightening with every word until Ellie was trying to get out of his hold.

"I know, I'm sorry! It's really hard to forget! She's my mama! I know she was a bad person but she's really hard to forget! I'm sorry!" Ellie cried out, wriggling in Tala's hold in an attempt to escape, tears starting to fall from her meadow green eyes. Tala was really starting scare her. She didn't like this Tala.

Tala looked at her startled. He immediately felt guilty for saying that stuff. He loosened his grip on her and let her jump out of his arms. Ellie turned her back on him and rubbed her wet eyes. Tala kneeled down next to her and wrapped his arms round her small frame.

"Shhh, don't cry. It's not your fault, I shouldn't have said anything, it wasn't fair on you. Of course you can remember your mother, just don't live by her rules. I'm sorry I scared you." Tala whispered softly into her ear, stroking her lilac hair gently and in calming manner. Ellie just sniffed and nodded. Tala sighed and picked her up again. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay. It's not your fault." Ellie said, nuzzling into Tala's chest.

"Thank you for being so understanding. I had no right to say what I did. Thank you." Tala said softly. Ellie just gave him a small grin and leaned against him. Tala smiled and started to make his way to the kitchen once more. "Now, we'd better get going before Ian eats everything!" Ellie laughed and jumped out of his arms before proceeding to drag Tala towards the kitchen.

For the next couple of weeks, things carried on normally. Ellie joined in with the Demolition Boys training and was steadily improving. Arguments between Ian and Ellie were commonplace at the breakfast play. Ellie had warmed up to Murielle but she was still a bit wary of being in the same room as the old woman by herself. Her wounds had finally healed, leaving nothing but a small scar on her left shoulder where her most serious wound had been. However, one Thursday morn that all changed.

Ellie had washed her hair that morning and Tala had helped her dry and plait her hair so they were both late going down to breakfast. They came across a strange sight when they entered the kitchen. Spencer was making breakfast; that was normal. Kai was drinking coffee; that was normal. Bryan and Ian were sitting on top of Tyson and Max whilst Kenny and Rei sat at the island and watched their two friends being squished; that was not normal. The only way to sum it up was:

"What the hell?" As Tala so eloquently put it. They all looked up, sans Tyson and Max, to see Tala and Ellie in the doorway.

"Language, Ivanov." Kai stated, returning to his coffee. Tala gave a slight growl but complied nonetheless, instead choosing to make his way pass the human mountain and sit down on one of the stools with Ellie on his lap. Spencer passed Tala a cup of coffee and Ellie some orange juice before returning to the oven. Tala took a long sip of his coffee before slowly lowering his cup and turning to Kai.

"What are they doing here?" Tala asked.

"Mr Dickenson asked me to let these guys stay here until the trials are over. The BBA are only willing to pay so much for room service. I was going to tell you yesterday but I forgot." Kai replied. Tala frowned.

"As if. You just didn't want to tell me because you knew it would annoy me more this way." Tala said accusingly. Kai shrugged.

"That as well."

"_Would someone please tell me what they are saying?"_

(From this point onwards: Japanese-normal, Russian-**bold**)

"Just wondering which way is the most painful way to torture you; castrating you and using a cheese grater on you?" Tala said airily.

"I vote for cheese grater." Ellie said seriously.

"I second that." Ian piped up. Both Kai and Bryan nodded whilst Spencer rolled his eyes.

"…Russians are sick, twisted, torturous people…" Tyson said quietly. Max sighed.

"No they aren't Tyson. You're just very gullible." The American stated.

"Max, not you too! You're supposed to be me on my side!" The Japanese boy whined. "I'm world champion. You can't be mean to me!"

"Tyson, if you don't shut up about being world champion, I'll make you run round this whole estate _without_ any breaks, you got that? Now, Bryan, Ian, get off him, you don't know where he's been." Kai ordered. Bryan and Ian quickly got off of Tyson and Max and made their way to the island. Bryan gave his koi a quick kiss on the cheek before sitting down and taking Ellie off him. Max and Tyson quickly got up off the floor and sat down as well.

"Now that Max and I can finally breathe, who on earth is that girl and why is she sitting on Bryan's lap? I mean, isn't he kind of violent and sadistic?" Tyson asked loudly. All the Russians gave each other a look saying 'I'm not telling them, you do it'. Ellie was out of the question seeing as she was now hiding shyly in Bryan's arms, her eyes looking at the newcomers timidly; Spencer was busy making the sure the breakfast didn't burn; Kai would probably insult Tyson whilst he explained which result in there being a big fight, same with Bryan and Ian. All that was left was Tala. They all looked at him and his eye twitched.

"Fine, I'll explain but you all owe me big time." Tala sighed. "This is Ellie and she is Bryan's little sister. We would appreciate it if you didn't scare her too much. Ellie, these are Tyson Granger, Max Tate, Rei Kon and Kenny though everybody calls him Chief. They, along with Kai, form the Bladebreakers." Ellie looked up from Bryan's shirt and gave them a shy smile and wave.

"How can she be Bryan's sister? Sure they're both quiet but he's a sadistic brute whilst she's a sweet innocent little girl! It doesn't make sense!" Tyson shouted. Ellie winced. Couldn't this boy say anything at a reasonable decibel level?

"What do you mean? Bryan isn't a sadistic brute. He's really nice and kind and gentle. If he's ever callous it's because he has reason to be or he's being forced to do it. Or at least that's what I think anyway." Ellie said quietly, looking Tyson straight in the eye. He looked at her taken aback.

"Ellie?" Kai said looking up from his coffee.

"Yes Kai?"

"Thank you for finally shutting the pig up. Usually we have to resort to food." All the Russians smirked at this comment and the Bladebreakers, sans Tyson, sniggered.

"Ah, come on! I'm not that bad!" Tyson protested. His team mates stopped sniggering straight away and gave him long suffering looks.

"Tyson, you are and I should know considering how I have to cook for you." Rei stated wearily, feeling sorry for Spencer seeing as how he had to cook.

"Guys, stop fighting. Breakfast's ready." Spencer chastised lightly, placing the food on the table. Spencer had cooked a full English and porridge for everybody though Tyson had the double amount of food as everybody else.

'Kai must've warned Spencer that Tyson was coming. There's no way he could've made all this if Kai hadn't.' Tala mused, taking a bite of sausage. He tried his best not to look at Tyson for fear of throwing up. Even Ellie, who Bryan had placed on the stool on the stool next to him so he could eat, had better manners than Tyson and she was five years younger than him!

They managed to get through breakfast without any incidents though Ellie didn't argue with Ian which in itself was strange because the eight-year-old usually loved taunting the short blader any chance she got. Rei offered to help Spencer clear up so the two teams waited in the kitchen. Tala spoke when he saw that they were done.

"Kai, I don't know what you are planning to do but if you need me I'll be in the training room along with rest of the team. Now, if you'll excuse –" Kai cut Tala off.

"Actually, Mr Dickenson wants the two teams to become friendlier towards each other so he wants us to spend at least one day together. Might as well get it over and done with." He informed the Demolition Boys captain. Tala's eyebrow twitched.

"Wow, Kai that must the most you've ever said at once!" Tyson exclaimed.

"That's because Kai likes annoying Tala." Ian enlightened them, Spencer, Bryan and Ellie all nodding seriously at this statement.

"Well, where are we going to go?" Max asked.

"What about the Moscow Zoo?" Dizzi piped up from her laptop. Ellie looked at the laptop slightly surprised but didn't say anything. It wasn't everyday you met a talking laptop after all!

Spencer nodded.

"Sounds good." He agreed. "It's something that we'd all be interested in and it's a perfect day out for kids." Everybody nodded their consent when Ian noticed something.

"Spencer, why did you say kids when the only kid here is Ellie?" he inquired "I mean, what's the point in using plural when you don't need it?"

"He wasn't talking about Ellie; he was talking about you, Max and Tyson." Tala answered for the blond, smirking as he talked. Ian scowled but didn't do anything. If he did then Tala would have him running round the mansion with rabid dogs barking at his heels for who knows how long. Max knew he could be a bit childish at times especially when he had had sugar so he didn't say anything either. Tyson, however, believed that he had no such inhibitions and felt insulted a fact that he quite readily let everybody else know about.

"Hey! How do you call me a kid? I'm world champion I'll have you know and I'll easily kick your butt again!" Tyson yelled. "I'm thirteen years old! I'm a teenager not some bratty little kid! How dare you insult the wor-"

"Tyson, if you so much as _think_ about finishing that sentence then so help you, I'll make you train until you wish you were back in diapers!" Kai threatened. Tyson had been bragging about being world champion and using it to get out of training for the past month and Kai was sick and tired of it.

"But Kai!" Tyson whined. He was about to say more when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned round to see Max.

"Just let it go Tyson. I'm sure they were only joking." He told his best friend. "Anyway, if we want to beat the crowds then we better get going and we can't do that if there's an argument." Tyson grumbled but nodded. Everybody quickly grabbed their coat and made their way to the garage. Since there were ten of them, they had to take two cars. Bryan, Tala, Ellie, Kai and Rei were in one car whilst Spencer, Ian, Max, Tyson and Kenny were in the other with Bryan and Spencer driving.

"I feel sorry for Spencer." Rei commented from his place next to Kai. "He has to put up with both Max and Tyson and Kenny's probably not going to be that much help either."

"Ian's will almost definitely egg those two on if he doesn't join in before hand that is." Tala added from the front.

"That's why they're not in the same car as Bryan. He would crash the car because he forgot he was driving while trying to strangle Midget, Pig and Hyper." Kai said grimly. Ellie gave a small a grin at the nicknames.

"I still think Cameron is a better name for Ian." She said smirking.

"That reminds me, what does that mean? Every time you say it Ian starts shouting at you and Spencer can't stop laughing." Tala asked, twisting round in his seat to look at Ellie. Rei answered for her.

"If I remember correctly, Cameron means big nose." He said looking at the small girl to his right for confirmation. Ellie nodded. Tala chuckled.

"You're right; it is a better name than Ian. It suits him." Tala agreed, turning back to face the road again. "By the way, what do you think of the rest of the Bladebreakers?" Ellie scrunched her nose up in thought.

"Rei and Kenny are nice and Max is okay when he's not hyper but Tyson…" Ellie bit her lip, not wanting to insult the Japanese boy but having nothing nice to say about him either. She looked down at her clasped hands.

"You get used to it. He's not that bad, it's just at times he's a bit over-zealous." Rei said kindly. She smiled at him and unclasped her hands. Rei noticed this and took one her small in his own and gave it a tiny squeeze. Ellie smiled and leaned against him.

Rei was definitely the nice one…


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: People, really, if I _did_ own Beyblade (or a life for that matter) I wouldn't be stuck here writing this story in a small dark room now would I?

* * *

**_Chapter Five_**

They had just arrived at the zoo and Ellie, Kai, Rei, Tala and Bryan knew immediately they had the better deal besides the 'small' argument that had happened between Kai and Tala. Let's just say, Kai took his teasing a bit too far.

Spencer and Kenny came out of the car looking as though they had been through hell and back three times and had a bunch of kids attack them all the way. Ian, Max and Tyson, on the other hand, looked like a bunch of hyped-up beavers. They all smiled sympathetically at the duo and walked to the entrance.

It wasn't long before there was a disagreement as to what to see. Tyson wanted to see the lizards and Tala wanted to have a look at the wolves.

"Lizards!"

"Wolves!"

"Lizards!!!"

"Wolves!!!"

"Liz-"

"Be quiet!" That was Kai finally snapping. The other two turned on him and looked ready to attack him for interrupting their argument. Just as the three-way brawl was about to start, Spencer spoke up.

"By the looks of it, the reptile house is right next to the wolf enclosure so why don't we go in that direction and people can go and see what they want?" He suggested. Everybody, sans the fighting trio, nodded their heads fervently, not wanting World War 3 to start. The three boys grumbled their assent and followed the other seven.

It didn't take them long to get to the two exhibits. Bryan, Tala, Kai, Rei and Spencer went to look at the wolves whilst the others entered the reptile house.

Things were okay at first but after about five minutes of looking Tyson got bored. He looked round and spotted Ellie slightly away from the group looking at a komodo dragon. His face broke into an evil grin. He quickly rounded up Max, Kenny and Ian and told them his very simple plan to scare Ellie. When I say simple, I mean simple. Tyson had picked up on the fact that Ellie wasn't a big fan of being alone so the plan was to hide and let Ellie think they had abandoned her. Kenny was against the idea and was Max was a bit hesitant about it but Ian was all for it and who were they to go against a Demolition Boys' wishes?

They quickly and silently hid around corners or in between displays and watched. Ellie had moved on from looking at the Komodo dragon and was now looking at one of the snakes. It wouldn't be long before Ellie noticed she was all alone. Ian smirked. Finally some payback for all those times she had taunted him.

Ellie was looking at the huge boa constrictor when she noticed that it was too quiet. She wasn't complaining, Tyson's loud voice hurt her ears but it was reassuring to know that she wasn't alone. She turned round to see nobody. Her eyes widened and she looked round wildly in a vain attempt to find her friends. When she couldn't see them anywhere, panic started to set in.

"Where are they? They were here a minute ago. They wouldn't just abandon me, would they?" Ellie asked herself quietly, her eyes tearing up slightly. She knew Ian wasn't exactly her best friend and she had made everybody laugh at Tyson this morning but she didn't mean to embarrass him; she was just stating her views! She was about to go look round the corner when somebody picked her up.

"What's a little cutie like you doing here all by yourself, eh?" the stranger asked. Ellie turned her head and saw a girl with pink hair and golden eyes. She stiffened slightly and her heart started pounding madly against her chest.

"M-m-my g-group must h-h-have a-accidentally l-left me b-behind b-but I know w-w-where t-they are s-so if you c-could please l-l-let m-me g-g-go…" Ellie somehow managed to stammer out, struggling to escape the pink things' grip. The pink thing was stronger than she looked however.

"Why don't me and my friends help you find them?"

"D-don't w-worry, I-I-I-I'll b-b-be f-fine." She said her stuttering starting to get slightly worse.

Ian heard her stuttering from his hiding place round the corner and started to feel a bit guilty. Ellie hated being by herself; 8 out of 10 times she would go to Bryan during the night. Also, he was usually the one the instigated the arguments; Ellie just went along with it. She only got really mean when it was really late at night and he was being a bastard and even then it had only been once and she had been really upset with herself for ages after that. It had taken several reassurances from Ian to make her calm again. Ian made up his mind and walked back round the corner.

"Ellie, there you are! Come on, we need to go meet up with the others!" He called out. Ellie jumped out of the girls' arms and ran to Ian. "Come on." Ian repeated, taking the younger girl's hand.

"Stop right there Papov! Where do you think you're going with that girl?" The pink haired girl demanded, jumping in front of the two.

"To see the wolves. Now, could you please get out of the way Wong?!" Ian growled. The girl was about to say something when she was interrupted by somebody.

"Leave them alone Mariah." Mariah turned round to look at where the voice had come from and saw the rest of the White Tigers and Demolitions Boys, the All Starz and the Bladebreakers. The person who had spoken was Rei.

"But Rei-Rei, _Ian_ of the _Demolition Boys _who tried to _kill_ you is trying to kidnap this little girl!" Mariah cried out.

"We were ordered to do what ever it took to win. It was just bad luck Rei was the one that went up against Bryan right after Boris told him to make an example of his opponent. And, FYI, Ian couldn't kidnap a fly." Tala said walking up to the two short ones and picking Ellie up. "Also, it's kinda hard to kidnap somebody who lives with you."

"But what if they're living with you because you kidnapped them!" Mariah shrieked. Ellie winced inwardly. This girl was even louder than Tyson!

"Mariah, Ellie is Bryan's sister so she'll be alright. Trust me." Rei sighed.

"Rei-Rei, you don't need to make up stories to protect them just because you're gay. I mean, she's way to innocent to be _his_ sister!" Mariah exclaimed. Rei blushed as everybody looked at him to see how he took this sudden exclamation.

"One way to tell everybody about your sexuality." Ellie muttered quietly to Tala raising an eyebrow. Tala shook with silent laughter and Ellie grinned slightly before turning back to Mariah and Rei.

"Mariah, you can't just go shouting out people's sexualities." Lee scolded her.

"I'm sorry, it just sorta slipped out." Mariah apologised sheepishly. "Anyway, it's not like I said anything about Kai." Her eyes widened as she realised what she had just said. Rei blushed furiously and hid his face in his hands. He looked up again when he felt a pair of arms wrap round his waist. He looked round to see Kai.

"No point in hiding it now they know." Kai said in answer to his koi's silent question. Rei smiled lovingly at his boyfriend and leaned against him happily.

"Great, now we're going to have two horny couples in the house." Ian groaned and Ellie frowned unhappily in agreement.

"Be quiet _Cameron_." Bryan said as he walked up to his koibito.

"You told him?" Ian asked Ellie.

"They asked." Ian groaned. He hated that stupid name. He glared at Ellie who just smiled demurely at him.

"Come on, the zoo obviously wasn't a good idea especially since certain people can't behave themselves." Kai said glaring Tyson.

"What?" Tyson exclaimed indignantly at Kai's glare.

"I just heard you talking to Max about what you did so since you obviously can't behave you can't go to the zoo." Tyson started to protest but a quick glare from Kai shut him up. "I suggest you shut up or I'll be telling Spencer not to make you dinner." Tyson looked at him aghast but shut up nonetheless.

"Come on, we might as well go. The zoo's starting to get busy and unless we want Tyson's ego to get any bigger, we'd better get going." Tala said. The rest of his team nodded and made their way out of the reptile house, Tala still carrying Ellie. The Bladebreakers quickly said their goodbyes and followed the Russians.

"Remember, we have that meeting at the BBA tomorrow!" Emily called out.

"Something else you forgot to tell us Kai?" Tala asked with his eyebrow twitching.

"Yep!" Kai said happily. He _loved_ annoying Tala! It was his favourite pastime!

They went on the same cars as before but this time Kai was driving with Rei in the passenger seat next to him and Tala and Bryan in the back on either side of Ellie.

"Kai, what did Tyson do to make you have to pull us all back from the trip? Usually you'd love to have a chance to annoy me for a whole day." Tala inquired. Kai glanced at him in the rear view mirror before returning his gaze to the road.

"Tyson thought it would be funny to scare Ellie and talked the other three into hiding with him to make her think that they had forgotten her." Kai said grimly. "I heard him talking to Max about how Ian ruined it by walking up to her after Mariah had found her." Tala frowned.

"I'll talk to Ian but since he was the first one to stop the joke I'll go easy on him. He hates washing dishes so I'll probably make him do that for the rest of the week." Tala said.

"I might follow through with my no dinner idea for Tyson. Max'll just do a bit of extra training tomorrow and I believe Kenny genuinely didn't want anything to do with the idea so he won't have any punishments or sanctions." Kai said. Rei nodded, feeling glad for Spencer not having to make all that extra food.

Bryan glanced at Ellie. She seemed a bit sad that Ian had joined in on the cruel joke but glad that he had come to her rescue. He held her hand and gave it a slight squeeze. She looked up at him slightly surprised and smiled. At least she had her brother…

* * *

A/N: Not exactly my longest _or_ best chapter in the world and for that I am sorry. Now, on a more positive note, a BIG thanks to all the people who reviewed/favourited/alerted/considered looking at. It makes me feel really happy and makes me want to write more. Thank you, merci, arigatou, spacibo and any other word that means thank you!


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: They only thing I own is my conscience and even that is slightly warped...

* * *

**_Chapter Six_**

Tyson complained when he received his punishment but a quick glare from everybody, sans Ellie who was learning maths with Murielle, shut him up. Unlike their partner in crime, Ian and Max took their punishments on the chin though Ian winced slightly at the thought of four days of washing up.

The afternoon passed slowly and quietly with the occupants doing very little. Tyson was moping because of his punishment but Max and Kenny had given up on trying to cheer him up after he had almost started crying. Kenny was upgrading Dragoon and Driger whilst Max had decided to get his punishment over and done with and was in the training room with Kai. Rei, Spencer and Ian were in the kitchen, Rei and Spencer talking whilst Ian played on his DS. Bryan and Tala had disappeared upstairs and Ellie was still with Murielle. It was relatively quiet all afternoon apart from one time when Ian had cried out happily, leapt up and started happy dancing on the table because he had finally beaten a level he had been stuck on.

Things started to become more interesting when a happy shriek from Tala and Bryan's room resounded round the house. All the other occupants looked in the room's direction warily knowing that the couple were like rabbits at times. Their worries were put at rest, however, when the sound of a door being flung open and two pairs of footsteps echoed throughout the hallway right after the shriek.

Tala burst into the library, where Murielle was teaching Ellie, with Bryan behind him carrying his laptop and a small box.

"Murielle, do you mind if we borrow Ellie?" He asked. The old maid nodded.

"Fine by me. We were just finishing up here." Murielle said gathering up some papers. Tala immediately grabbed the girl's wrist and all but dragged her to the training room. Ellie was having trouble staying upright as she was pulled along at about a million miles an hour. Tala dragged her pass the living room and kitchen, gaining strange stares and a following as the others came to see what the big fuss was. Tala stopped suddenly causing the girl behind him to bump into him. She stepped back and saw that she was in the training room with Kai and Max looking at them weirdly.

"Why am I getting the sense of déjà vu?" She asked, her voice slightly muffled as she rubbed her sore noise. Tala just smiled benignly and reached into the box Bryan was carrying. He pulled out a red beyblade and a black launcher which he handed to Ellie.

"If I remember correctly, I owe you a rematch." He said by means of explanation. Ellie took the blade and walked up to dish wordlessly but Tala could've sworn he heard her muttering about déjà vu. "Kai, do you mind being referee? No? Thanks!" Kai glared slightly at Tala but said nothing.

"3…2…1…LET IT RIP!" Kai shouted. Tala and Ellie launched their blades. Tala spotted that Ellie had left her right side open this time but did not fall the trick. 'Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.' Tala thought as he avoided the red blade. Ellie looked a little angry that he had not fallen for the trap but shook it off.

"What's the matter Tala, too scared to attack? Is the mighty wolf actually a chicken in disguise?" Ellie jeered. Tala growled and once again let his anger get the better of him. He ordered Wolborg to do a frontal barrage. Ellie used her blade's speed to dodge most of the attacks but a couple hit her, greatly damaging her blade. "Kyuuborg, hang on, we can do it, I know we can!" Kyuuborg quickly straightened up and went straight for Wolborg, giving hit after hit only just dodging any form of counter attack Tala launched.

Tala growled. 'She's may be small but her speed is incredible. The only way I'll be able to hit her is if I call out Wolborg but that would make me seem weak in front of the Bladebreakers but then I might lose to Ellie because of the speed difference! It's all so confusing; I don't know what to do!' Tala growled again.

**"Tala, look at me."** Tala's head snapped up to look at Ellie, startled out of his thoughts. **"Tala, please call out Wolborg. I know you don't want to appear weak in front of the Bladebreakers, especially Tyson, but when they see Kyuuborg then unless they are a complete and utter idiot, like Tyson, they will see that you needed to. If they give you hard time, just say you wanted to test my skill."**Ellie said softly so the others couldn't hear. Tala looked at her slightly surprised before smirking.

**"You are so going to regret what you just said."** Tala stated. "Come on out Wolborg!"

"That's your cue, Kyuuborg!" Ellie shouted. The two mighty bitbeasts rose from their blades and immediately went for each other. Kyuuborg went for the wolf's legs but as he went past Wolborg bit down on his tails. Kyuuborg howled in pain and backed off. The two blades circled each other, occasionally clashing in the middle of the dish before retreating as the two bladers looked for an opening. Tala grinned as he spotted one that Ellie had accidentally left open in her weakened state.

"Wolborg, Icy Blizzard!" Tala ordered. Ellie's eyes widened when she noticed what she had done.

"Kyuuborg, Hanabi No Yoru!" She quickly tried to counter the attack but it was too late. Wolborg slammed into the red blade and sent it flying out of the dish. Ellie just ducked in time as her blade went rocketing into the wall behind her.

"Definitely déjà vu…" Ellie muttered as she picked up her battered blade.

"Maybe déjà vu but you're still quite strong for one so little." Tala told her as he picked her up.

"Why do you two keep talking about déjà vu?" Bryan asked as he came up to the pair, closing the laptop. Ellie and Tala looked at each other.

"I thought you told them." Ellie said.

"I thought you did." Tala frowned.

"You thought what?" Spencer asked. Tala looked at Ellie and Ellie looked at him pointedly. Tala pouted.

"Fine." Tala sighed. "You see a couple of weeks ago…"

_Ten minutes later_

Bryan slapped lightly upside the head. Tala started and glared at his lover.

"What was that for?" He snapped.

"Why didn't you tell us before? We needed someone to keep Kai out of trouble." Bryan sighed.

"Hn." Kai grunted, obviously not amused. He was about to say more when Murielle walked in.

"Sorry to disturb you but dinner is served." She announced.

"Food!" Ian and Tyson shouted happily, running out the room towards the kitchen.

"Gluttons…" Ellie muttered so only Tala could hear. He laughed.

"You got that right!" He replied as he walked towards the kitchen at a much slower pace followed by the others.

* * *

**A/N: **A BIG thank you to the people who reviewed, favourited, alerted or even just looked at this story! It's makes me feel so happy that I just want to jump with joy (which i have done and hurt my foot doing --').

However, on a slightly more serious note, for the next few weeks my updates are going to be sporadic. This is because some genius thought it would be smart to have two GCSE's on the same day and then work experience a couple of weeks after. I will try to update in the time between the exams and work experience but don't expect regular updates again until about halfway through June. Gomen!


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: **My lawyer wants me to say I don't own Beyblade so here I go (inhales) I don't own Beyblade. Happy? (lawyer nods) Good._

* * *

_

_**Chapter Seven**_

_Midnight at Hiwatari Manor_

"Ah! Fuck Bryan! Harder!" Ellie groaned as the sound of sex drifted through the walls under her pillow and into her ears. As much as she loved her brother and his lover she hated it when they got like this. They always got caught up in the moment and would forget that she was next door which would result in her being awake half the night and being very irritable in the morning. Ellie let out another groan as Tala let out another lust-filled scream. She sat up abruptly and got out of bed, grabbing her pillow as she did.

'Looks like it's time to go and see if Spencer will let me bunk with him again…' Ellie thought sourly as she exited the room and made her way through the maze of corridors. She was so sleepy she didn't notice someone coming from another corridor until she bumped into them. She fell to the floor with a soft 'thump' as did the other person.

"Ellie, what are you doing up?" Ellie brought her sleepy gaze up to look at Ian who was holding a hand out for her.

"Bryan and Tala are at it again." Ellie said grabbing the hand. Ian grimaced and pulled her up.

"Granger and Tate are at it to. I'm guessing you're going to Spencer's room?" Ellie nodded. "Come on, I'm going there as well. We might as well go together." Ellie nodded again and followed the older boy through the corridors. They walked together in silence.

When they were only a couple of doors away from Spencer's room, a yell ripped through the air. Ellie and Ian let out simultaneous groans. It seemed there was another couple who didn't know the meaning of taking it slowly.

"Great, just great! With three horny couples in the house we'll never get any sleep!" Ian moaned unhappily. Ellie nodded poignantly.

"How does Spencer sleep through it all?" She mused.

"I don't." The two jumped and spun round to see a bleary eyed Spencer towering above them. "Come on you two, let's go downstairs. There we might actually be able to get some sleep." The two small bladers nodded and followed the elder down the stairs and into the living room where, thankfully, the fire was still alight. Spencer picked up a couple of blankets from on top of the cupboard and gave one to Ellie and Ian before settling down in the armchair. Ian and Ellie arranged themselves on the sofa so that they were resting on Ellie's pillow (Ian had forgotten his) under the shared blanket.

Light snoring from the other side of the room told Ian that Spencer was already asleep and he could see that Ellie was only a few sheep away from being dead to the world herself. Ian gulped.

"Ellie…?" Ellie opened a sleepy eye and gave a small 'hmm'. "About this afternoon…I'm really sorry. I knew it would scare you but I still went through with it. That was really mean of me and I'm sorry."

"Ian?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up and go to sleep." Ellie ordered with a slight smile, curling up against Ian and finally getting her ticket to dreamland. Ian's eyes widened slightly before taking Ellie's advice and closing, a slight smile playing on his lips.

* * *

**A/N: **Like I said last week, don't expect regular updates until mid June - early July. Exams, work experience and more exams are to blame and I am really sorry about this. I hope all my readers can forgive me and I look forward to the time where I can give you regular updates once again. Gomen!


	8. Chapter 8

Sorry it's been so long but I've had a lot of stuff going on. However, I've only got two more exams and after that I should only have homework to worry about (unless the teachers are really mean). Updates shouldn't take so long now and should be more or less regular. Thank you for being so understanding. Sorry again!

May I also add that the language they are speaking at the moment is Japanese and any other language will be in **bold.**

**Disclaimer:** Trust me, if I owned Betblade there would be a lot more yaoi and I mean _a lot._

* * *

**_Chapter Eight_**

It was eight in the morning and everyone, sans Max and Tyson who were still sleeping, was awake and in the kitchen. Rei was helping Spencer make breakfast, not wanting the blonde to overwork himself because of his team mate. The rest of the Russians were either reading the newspaper, Ian with the comics, Bryan with sports, Tala trying to do the puzzles and Ellie with the rest, or drinking coffee (Kai). All was quiet except for the low hum of the oven, all being too tired (for various reasons) to make any small talk.

The silence was broken by the incessant ringing of a mobile phone. All eyes looked towards Kai, the only one who had such a boring ringtone, and watched him as he slowly lowered his coffee and flipped open his mobile.

"Hello…Yes…Hn…Hn…Okay…Bye…" Kai shut his phone rather dejectedly and slumped forward with a sigh before letting his head drop to the counter. Quick as a flash, Ian, Bryan and Ellie folded up their respective parts of the newspaper and slipped them under Kai's head just before it hit the hard surface. Kai's head landed with a soft thump and stayed there for a few moments before he lifted his head slightly and looked at Tala. Feeling someone staring at him, Tala looked up to see Kai's deadpan gaze set upon him.

"What?" Tala protested. "Usually I have another five minutes to complete these puzzles!" Kai just continued to stare at him. Tala sighed. "Fine." Tala quickly scribbled down the answers and folded up the paper. "Lift your head." Kai lifted his head a couple of centimetres and Tala slipped the paper onto the pile. "You can lower your head now." Kai let his head drop again with a dull thud. Rei watched on slightly bemused.

"Does this happen often?" Rei asked Spencer. The tall blonde nodded.

"More often than you would think." The Demolition Boy answered. "Anyway, Kai, what's got you so worked up? Usually you don't mind if Tala doesn't give you his paper."

"Mr Dickenson just called. Just as the BBA building was opening, a shooting occurred right in front of it. The BBA is closed until the police have sorted everything out so he asked me if the meeting could be held here." Kai explained. Tala groaned.

"Somebody shoot me now!" Tala yelled with a grimace, throwing his hands up in the air dramatically, only just missing Bryan and Ellie.

"That's not the worst of it either." Kai said grimly. "Apparently Mr Dickenson was just walking into the building when the shooting happened and the police have pulled him in for questioning and he doesn't know how long he'll be but the hotel wasn't expecting the other teams to still be there and there's some big event going on so Mr Dickenson wants me to let the other teams stay here for the day until about six o'clock." Tala groaned and let his head drop to the table. Kai pushed the pile of papers underneath him to soften the fall. Tala gave him a grateful thumbs up.

"When should they be here?" Bryan asked.

"By about ten o'clock." Bryan nodded thoughtfully.

"Ian, Ellie, you two go and tell Murielle and the kitchen staff about this. Rei, could you go and try to wake up Tyson and Max please?" Bryan asked. The three nodded and slipped of their stools and apron respectively before exiting the room. "Spencer, you might want to hurry up with the food. The pig is probably going to be coming down soon depending how long it takes Rei to wake him up and don't want him whining just because he's hungry." Spencer nodded and turned back to the oven.

"Hey, where do you get off ordering my subordinates around? I'm the captain of this time." Tala protested. Bryan smirked.

"If I'm a subordinate, then what do you want me to do master?" Bryan leered. Tala smirked seductively.

"I think you know very well what I want you to do, my dear subordinate." He said lustfully, draping himself over his koibito.

"Take it to the bedroom you two! It was bad enough hearing you last night!" Spencer called out. Bryan and Tala blushed.

"Sorry…"

------------------------------

SPLAT!

"Take that Granger!" Ian cheered

"I'll get you back for that Papov!" Tyson swore. Ian just laughed. They had told Murielle about the change in plans and she had immediately kicked everyone except Spencer, Rei, Kai and Kenny outside so she could clean without worrying about people messing the house up or not. She also got a lot of help from Spencer and Rei and Kai and Kenny could do simple tasks so that was another reason for keeping those four inside. The other six, on the other hand, had been kicked outside into the front garden to entertain themselves and so they didn't mess up the house.

Tala and Bryan were sitting on the front steps, watching the others have a snowball fight. It was the Russian Rascals (Ian and Ellie) vs. the Champs (Tyson and Max (Tyson had named them)). Suffice to say, the two Russians were thrashing the foreign lovers. They only time they had been hit was when Ellie had been acting as a decoy so Ian could shove snow down the back of their coats. The two 'champs', however, hadn't landed a single hit upon the two short ones.

Tyson let out a feral war cry and threw a snowball at Ellie which she easily avoided.

"With an aim like that it's surprising you even managed to get your beyblade in the dish!" Ellie called out, a mischievous sparkle in her eyes. The little girl scooped up a snowball and threw it with all her might towards the Japanese boy. Tyson, however, saw it coming and ducked just in time so that it skimmed the top of his cap. The snowball instead hit Ian who had been sneaking up on Tyson to put more snow down the back of his choice. Ian let out a yell of a surprise before glaring at the girl.

"Ellie!" He shouted, quickly losing his temper and throwing a snowball of his own at the girl. Ellie was surprised at the sudden betrayal and didn't dodge in time and thus ended up getting hit in the face. She tripped and fell backwards. She rubbed her stinging cheek, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes. Bryan got up to go and see if the girl was okay but Tala held him back. Bryan sent his lover a slight glare.

"Tala…" Bryan started but Tala shook his head and nodded to where Ellie was. Bryan looked back to where his sister was to see Max's mother (Judy if he remembered right) kneeling next to the small girl.

"It will be good for her to interact with older females that she doesn't know." Tala said seriously, looking Bryan straight in the eye.

"I suppose…" Bryan relented slightly. "But I still don't like it." He finished stubbornly. Tala just smiled before looking back to where Judy was talking to Ellie.

_With Ellie and Judy_

"Hey, are you okay? Come here, let me look at your cheek." Judy said kindly, taking Ellie's chin gently and tilting her head sideways so she could see where the snowball had hit. "It doesn't look to bad but I think there might've been a piece of gravel in that snowball because there's a small cut on your cheek." The blonde American informed the girl, letting go of Ellie's chin and rummaging in her handbag for something. "Here you go!" Judy said as she placed a plaster on the eight-year-olds cheek/

"T-thank you." Ellie said quietly, giving the older woman a small smile. 'Yes, I only stuttered once!' The girl thought victoriously, doing an imaginary victory dance. Judy smiled.

"By the way, my name is Judy Tate, Max's mum." Judy introduced herself. "And according to what Emily and Mariah were saying last night, you must be Ellie." Ellie looked up slightly surprised and nodded. Judy smiled again. "Well, I'd better go now. Emily and Mariah wanted to talk to you and I need to see my Maxie. Bye!" Judy stood up and gave the girl a small wave before walking over to where her hyperactive son was talking to his boyfriend. Ellie stood up and looked over to where Judy was speaking to her son and small smile spread across her lips. She was just about to walk over to Ian, who was looking slightly guilty, when a 'SQUEEE!' came from behind her and she was glomped by someone double her size. She gave a yelp as she fell over yet again, this time forwards. Ellie looked up from the corner of her eye to see the pink thing from the zoo. 'Mariah, if I remember correctly.' Ellie thought, wincing slightly at the memories of Mariah's loud voice.

"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God! You are so cute!!! Have you grown since I last saw you? Oh no, you've hurt yourself! Are you okay?!?! You're not going to die, are you?!?! Please don't die, I can't live without you!" Mariah wailed. Sometime during her one breathe speech Mariah had grabbed Ellie and hugged her hard and the Chinese girl hadn't let go of her yet so Ellie was starting to turn slightly blue.

"Mariah, it's just a scratch so let go of her before you suffocate her!" Emily berated her pink-haired friend (don't ask me where she came from). "Also, we only just saw her yesterday, she can't have grown that much if at all!" Mariah reluctantly let go of Ellie and glared at her ginger-haired friend.

"T-thank you." Ellie stammered out breathlessly, rubbing her chest slightly. Emily smiled whilst Mariah pouted.

"Come on, I wasn't that bad!" Mariah protested.

"Yes, you were." Emily said.

"No, I wasn't!"

"Yes, you were!"

"No, I was-"

"Mariah, yes you were, now please stop shouting!" Lee reprimanded his sister.

"Stay out of this Lee!" Mariah warned.

"I'll stay out of what I want!" Lee shouted heatedly. At this point, they started shouting in Chinese, leaving a slightly confused Emily and Ellie to look on. Tala and Bryan walked up.

"What's going on here?" Tala asked as he looked at the bickering siblings. Ellie answered.

"Mariah and Emily were fighting but then Lee told Mariah to be quiet and then they started fighting." The eight-year-old explained. By this time Lee and Mariah's argument had ascended to the level where they had attracted the attention of the others who had been having a snowball war sans Gary who had been eating.

"This would actually be quite entertaining if I could understand what they were saying." Tala said pouting slightly. Just then Mariah shouted something that made Lee reel back in shock, Gary to stop eating, Kevin to burst out laughing and, the most surprising reaction of all, Ellie to start giggling.

"**Mariah sure had a habit of just blurting things out**_." _Ellie giggled out.

"**What did she say?"** Tala asked the young girl quietly in Russian.

"**I'm not sure I'm allowed to say."**Ellie told him trying to keep a straight face.

"Are you guys planning how to torture me again?" Tyson asked loudly, walking up to the trio of Russians (Ian was trying to get snow out of his shirt). Tala sighed.

"First of all, I was joking when I said that. Nobody is trying to torture you except for maybe Ellie." The mentioned female looked mildly offended at this statement. Tala shrugged off her pout/glare and carried on. "And secondly, we're trying to get Ellie to tell us what Mariah said to depress Lee that much." This last bit was true; Lee was sitting in a dark corner with little black lines around him looking very depressed

"Why are you asking her? She wouldn't know!" Tyson protested. Bryan spoke up at this point.

"She's actually smarter than you are giving her credit for." Bryan stated. "Since you've only been here for a day you wouldn't know this but it is quite common for her to switch languages about five times in the course of a day especially if she and Ian are having one of their more heated arguments." Tyson's mouth opened and closed a bit like that of a goldfish's for a few moments before finally deciding to stay shut.

"What is it about Kuznetsovs and being able to shut up Tyson without resorting to food?" Tala mused with a grin. Tyson flushed red in anger and started yelling at Tala who just laughed. He turned back to Ellie who was hiding behind Bryan as everyone crowded round her, all desperate to find out what Mariah had said to put Lee in such a deep state of depression.

"I-I'm not s-sure I'm allowed to s-say." Ellie said softly, her mittened hands fisting the material of Bryan's trouser legs as she hid shyly behind her big brother.

"Aw, c'mon Ellie! Tell us please! You're the only one who can!" Michael, Eddie and Steven begged the eight-year-old.

"Leave her alone, you jerks! Stop feeding off others misfortune!" Emily shouted at her teammates.

"But Emily…!" Michael pleaded.

Ellie bit her lip as she turned away from Emily and Michael's beg and turn down routine to look at the saddened Lee. Feeling someone looking at him, Lee turned round to meet Ellie's uncertain gaze. He turned to the others to see what was going and, upon listening to Emily and Michael's routine, realised why Ellie looked so torn. She didn't want to hurt the others' feelings by not telling them when she obviously knew but she also didn't want to hurt his feelings even more than his little sister had. Lee sighed, looked back at Ellie and gave a dejected nod. Ellie's eyes widened before mouthing a thank you turning back to the group.

"Um…" Ellie said, unsure of how to say it without hurting Lee's pride too much. Upon hearing the 'um', everybody turned their attention to the small girl. Ellie ducked behind Bryan's legs before gathering her courage and stepping forward so she was standing next to Bryan. "When Mariah and Lee were arguing, Mariah kept shouting reasons why Lee shouldn't boss her around just because he's her big brother and because he wants her to stay safe. One the reasons Mariah said was that when Lee was seven their Aunt Aaliyah came and apparently she was really scary and masculine and Lee was scared of her. She kissed him and Lee was so scared that he wet himself and fainted." Ellie said as quickly as possible, deciding to be straight forward and make Lee's pain as short as possible.

Everybody looked at Ellie blankly for a few seconds before looking at Lee and back again. This repeated a few more times before sniggers, snickers and snorts started to spread across the group. These soon turned into full-blown laughter.

"I c-can't b-b-believe that the m-mighty l-leader of t-t-the W-white T-t-tigers was s-s-scared of h-h-his _aunt_!" Michael laughed.

"I c-c-can't b-believe h-he w-wet h-h-his p-pants!" Tala choked out, tears of mirth running down his cheeks.

"Oh, stop being so uncouth."

* * *

**A/N:** Okay, I admit this not my best chapter in the world and the last bit wasn't really that funny but there is method to my madness! (I think).

Anyway, a big, ginormous, prodigious thank you to all my readers, reviewers, alerters and favouriters for being so supportive and patient. I promise that I, Genocide Never Again, will try harder next time and get my next update by the summer holiday at the latest. That is my vow!

I hope to see you next time! Bye!


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer:** I can't think of anything of anything funny to say today so I'll just say it: I do not own Beyblade. Thank you for listening.

Also, I would like to say sorry to The Cattan Wolf for not being able to get this chapter up in time for their summer holiday. Gomen!

* * *

**_Chapter Nine_**

"I c-can't b-b-believe that the m-mighty l-leader of t-t-the W-white T-t-tigers was s-s-scared of h-h-his _aunt_!" Michael laughed.

"I c-c-can't b-believe h-he w-wet h-h-his p-pants!" Tala choked out, tears of mirth running down his cheeks.

"Oh, stop being so uncouth." Everyone stopped laughing and turned round to see the Majestics. Robert (in case you haven't guessed) was the one who had spoken.

"I was wondering where you guys were." Tyson said as he stepped up and shook Robert's hand.

"So the pig regains his voice." Ian deadpanned. An anger mark appeared on Tyson's forehead.

"Why you little…!" Tyson shouted, lunging towards Ian. The short Demolition Boy sidestepped out of the way and Tyson flew into a small snowdrift.

"We are sorry that we are late." Robert apologised looking towards Tala and Bryan. Johnny snorted.

"I'm not! It's not my fault those two were up all night doing _stuff_ and didn't want to get up this morning!" Johnny said loudly, jabbing his thumb towards Enrique and Oliver, who blushed, as he spoke.

"Hey, no sexual innuendo in front of children!" Mariah reprimanded the Scot loudly, placing her hands over Ellie's ears.

"Don't bother trying to preserve her innocence. She sleeps in the bedroom next Bryan and Tala's." Ian told the Chinese girl. Tala blushed slightly and Bryan turned his head away, his face slightly pinker than before.

"Ian?"

"Yes Tala?"

"Another week of washing up for you." Ian spluttered in protest before stopping, not wanting to extend his punishment even more. The short boy settled for crossing his arms, turning his back on the group and sulking. Mariah reluctantly removed her hands from Ellie's ears and the smaller girl gave her a grateful grin.

"What were you guys talking about anyway?" asked Oliver who still had a slight tinge to his cheeks.

"We were talking about how Lee was afraid of his aunt." Max answered. Enrique laughed.

"Looks like you're not alone Johnny!" The blonde said loudly. Johnny flushed angrily.

"Shut it Giancarlo!" He snapped.

"What are you talking about?" Kevin asked curiously. Johnny made to place his hand over Enrique's mouth but the blonde Italian beat him to it.

"He has about seven aunties who cannot resist pinching his cheeks every time they see him and his mum has a whole album full of photos of him with bright red cheeks, crying." He told them quickly before yelping as Johnny tackled him to the ground.

"It seems like we're not the only team who has a fear of older females." Tala mused.

"Who's scary enough to make the infamous Demolition Boys quake in their boots?" Kevin asked. Tala looked around conspiratorially before whispering just loud enough for everyone to hear one name.

"Murielle…" Tala shivered, Ian gulped and even Ellie looked mildly afraid. The most surprising reaction, however, was Bryan's who wore look of downright terror. Even those who didn't know the women felt a shiver run down there spines. If she scared the Demolition Boys, especially Bryan, that much then she had to be a force to be reckoned with.

"Who's Murielle..?" Michael asked, regretting the words almost as soon as they left his mouth. Tala opened his mouth to answer when a lot of loud shouting and yelping came from inside. It got louder and louder until they could hear each word clearly (not that anyone but the present Russians could understand them). They all jumped as the banged open to reveal a disgruntled and slightly scared looking Kai and an angry Russian woman. The woman threw Kai by the scruff of his neck outside into the snow before slamming the door shut.

"…And _that_, people, was Murielle." Tala told them after a moment of silence.

"I can see why Bryan was so scared…" Eddie commented, looking over to where said boy was still clinging to his boyfriend.

"Hey, Kai, are you okay?" Tyson asked loudly as he jogged slowly over to his captain. Max got to Kai first, even though he was only walking, and pulled the older boy up. The American blonde squinted at Kai's hair.

"Kai, is that…_flour_ in your hair?" Max questioned uncertainly. Kai glared at him.

"Don't. Ask." He growled, making sure to send his best glare to everyone just in case. "Murielle said that we can come inside in about ten minutes. She just needs to help Spencer and Rei finish cleaning the kitchen up."

"I hope we haven't caused you too much trouble." Oliver said apologetically. Tala waved it off.

"Don't worry about it. It's the cook's day off so when we told Murielle she got into a bit of a tizzy about making sure everyone had a proper meal." Tala explained.

"Well, if we've got ten minutes, why don't we finish off that snowball fight?" Tyson suggested. Everybody looked at him as if he had grown another head. "What?"

"Tyson, that's the best idea you've had since the day you were born. Keep up the good work." Steven said slowly, still slightly in shock that _Tyson_ had had a _good_ idea. Tyson bristled in anger.

"Hey, you can't be mean to me, I'm worl-" Tyson was abruptly cut off by a snowball to the mouth courtesy of a slightly homicidal Kai. Apparently Tyson had been going on about his achievement ever since Kai had thrown a bucket of water over him to wake him up and Kai had finally snapped.

"You're going down Granger!" Homicidal Kai shouted. This was the start of a free-for-all snowball fight that went down in the history books as the bloodiest snowball fight of all time (well, in Ellie and Tala's diaries anyway…).

_After the Snowball Fight-turned-War_

Everybody who had participated now lay on the snow covered ground twitching randomly every few seconds, save Kai who had been unanimously named the winner by the spectators. The spectators consisted of Gary who still had some food that he wanted to eat, the Majestics, sans Johnny, because, in Robert's words, why should people of their prestigious lineage have to take part in something as 'uncouth' as a snowball fight, and the rest of the Russians, all of them knowing that, if you valued your life, you should not go up against what they liked to call 'Homicidal Kai' (well, duh).

"If you've all finished licking your wounds, I think we can go inside now." Ian announced rather irritably (he had been pegged in the face more than once by stray flying balls of snow). The fallen 'soldiers' groaned as the gingerly picked up their battered bodies and trooped inside. Spencer and Rei came into the hall to meet them.

"We're still not allowed in the kitchen and Murielle wants us to also stay away from the dining room. Other than that, we're allowed anywhere in the mansion." Spencer informed them. The group just stared at him. Spencer cocked his head to one side quizzically. "What?"

"Spencer…why are you wearing a pink frilly apron?" Bryan asked, pointing to said garment as he spoke. Spencer looked down to see that he was still wearing the pink frilly apron he had donned whilst working in the kitchen.

"My normal apron is in the wash so Murielle let me borrow her spare apron." Spencer explained as he pulled off the apron and walked back to the kitchen. Everybody let out a sigh of relief. Spencer did _not_ look good in pink.

"Well, what are we supposed to do now?" Kevin asked. Tala thought for a moment.

"Well, there's the library, we've got some board games somewhere, there's quite a large selection of DVDs in the living room as well as games." Tala listed. "There's also a small gym if you don't like sitting down for too long."

"Why don't we play Truth or Dare instead?" Mariah suggested. She was quickly overruled by the boys, none of them wanting to run the risk of having to wear a dress or dance the chicken dance or something equally stupid/horrifying/embarrassing etc. Of course, the fact that all the male White Tiger members looked downright terrified didn't help. Mariah pouted at the rejection. "It was just a suggestion…"

"Why don't we just watch a movie?" Rei quickly suggested, knowing that Mariah would immediately agree with _his_ suggestion.

"That's a great idea, Rei-Rei!" Mariah exclaimed, smiling in a sickly sweet way. Rei only just resisted the urge to vomit. "Is that okay with everyone else?" Mariah asked, looking at them all in such a way that they knew that if they protested they would die an early death. The group quickly gave their assent, all knowing how dangerous girls could be sometimes. "Great! What movie are we going to watch?"

"Nothing above a twelve." Tala said.

"But all the good ones are above twelve!" Tyson whined. Tala just glared at him and the Japanese boy quickly quieted.

"Ian, Ellie, why don't you have a look? You two are the ones who know the DVD cabinet the best." Spencer suggested, having walked back into the room a couple of minutes ago. The two short ones nodded and walked over to said cabinet. Michael whistled lowly.

"Look at how big this cabinet is! You guys must have loads of DVDs!" Michael exclaimed as he walked over and stood in front of the cabinet that Ellie and Ian were standing either side of.

"I suggest you stand back, Parker." Ian warned. Michael scowled at the Russian.

"Why should I?" He snarled.

"It would be in your best interest to stand back…" Ellie agreed with Ian. Michael stubbornly stood his ground. Ian sighed.

"Fine. Your funeral." With that said, Ian and Ellie opened the doors with a flourish and watched as Michael's face paled as he was buried underneath a pile of DVDs.

"It's been ages since we sorted out all these DVDs so that was why we were standing back." Ellie explained as Michael resurfaced. The American quickly scrambled out of the mini mountain with the help of Lee.

"Okay, let's see what we've got! Finding Nemo?" Ian asked. Steven groaned.

"Please, anything but that! Emily's made us watch it so many times, I know all the lines!" He exclaimed. Everybody looked at Emily who ducked her blushing face.

"What about Madagascar?" Ellie suggested. This time it was Enrique who grimaced.

"Sorry but those monkeys give me the creeps and Robert finds them really 'uncouth'." He said.

"Home Alone?" Ian called out as he pulled another DVD out of the pile. Everybody groaned. The process of pull, suggest and groan repeated itself several times.

"Ice Age?" Ellie asked, a slight hint of exasperation creeping into her soft voice. Surprisingly nobody had any objections. It wasn't too scary but it wasn't too boring either. The perfect balance. Even Robert had no objections. Everyone settled down in the squishy sofas as Tala put in the disc.

"Is everyone comfy?" Tala asked, his hand hovering above the play button. After getting everybody's consent (and all the necessary popcorn), he hit the play button and quickly sat down between Bryan and Ellie as the movie began to play…

_One Hour And Forty-Five Minutes Later_

As the credits rolled, more than one person had wet eyes, mainly the girls and quite a few of the boys. Mariah wiped her eyes.

"It was so funny!" She laughed holding onto Emily who was also laughing.

"I know!" Ellie giggled as she clung onto Tala who returned the embrace with tears of laughter in his eyes. Murielle walked in.

"Lunch is ready and Mr Dickenson called. He said that he would be here about two thirty." She told them. They all nodded and groaned as they stood up and stretched. They slowly walked to the dining room, talking about various trivial things as they ambled. Upon entering the room, everybody, sans the Russians and the Majestics, gasped. The dining room was more like a dining hall and it was as big as most of their houses if not bigger.

"Wow!" Kevin breathed.

"Look at all the food!" Gary said just as breathlessly. Everybody sweatdropped slightly but they had to agree that there was a lot of food.

"You two have outdone yourselves." Kai commented. Rei blushed and Spencer smiled.

"We saw the snowball war from the kitchen window and we thought you would all be really hungry, even if you did have some popcorn with the film, so we made more than usual with a load of help from Murielle." Rei explained. The gathered teams nodded wholeheartedly at the explanation and sat down to eat, all eyes avoiding the end of the table where Tyson and Gary were sitting for fear of death…or throwing up. Which ever came first.

It took them until about one thirty to clear the all their plates which quite a good time considering how they had Gary and Tyson and they had only started at twelve thirty. They chatted whilst the servants cleared the table, all agreeing that they might as well stay in the room for the meeting. Emily turned to Ellie who was talking to Tala in Russian.

"Ellie?" Emily called to the small girl. Ellie looked up and glanced at the older girl questioningly. "Bryan said before that you can speak up to five different languages in a day but how is that possible? Most eight-year-olds can barely learn a second language let alone a fifth one."

"My mama worked a lot so she regularly left me with our neighbour for the day and she used to be a translator and kept switching between languages so I learnt all the necessary sounds. As I got older and learnt how to talk it became necessary for me to learn what she was saying or be forever wondering if she wanted sugar in her tea or not." Ellie explained. _'Well, technically it is true. What mama did was technically a line of work, it just isn't a very respectable one…'_

"What do you mean 'you learnt all the necessary sounds'?" Kevin asked, having listened because Mariah and Lee had quietly started arguing again. Tala jumped in before Ellie could tell the boy.

"Apparently, if you hear a sound during your first six months you should be able to replicate it when you start talking." Tala informed them. Ellie nodded in agreement.

"It's really annoying though." Ian grumbled. "Whenever we have one of our arguments and she wants to finish it, she just says a really long and complicated word to shut me up and when asked later what she said it turns out she just said the same way over and over again in different languages and it's usually a really stupid word like pears!" Ian panted slightly as he finished his explanation/rant. Ellie grinned.

"Oh, I remember that one…" Ellie smiled fondly at the memory. That had been her finest insult ever. The group carried on talking, comparing insults that they had used against their friends. Kevin was about to add another one to the already extensive list when he was interrupted.

"Good afternoon everyone!" All the teams looked to the door to see Mr Dickenson.

"Hi Mr Dickenson!" Tyson shouted, waving madly at the old man. Mr Dickenson smiled at the boy.

"First of all, I am very sorry about this arrangement Kai but the BBA won't even be open today and the hotel was already booked." The old man apologised. Kai just hn'ed which Mr Dickenson took as an okay. "Also, I would like to thank all of you for turning up today. I know it's been a long time since the championships but we have only just finished dealing with Boris and Voltaire. Due to Voltaire's influence, it took a long time for us prosecute them but about week ago we found various footage of their training techniques and, fortunately, the jury agreed that their means were barbaric so they have been put in prison for life with no bail." The more boisterous teams burst into cheers. Mr Dickenson smiled. "Now onto other matters…"

The meeting carried on for what seemed like ages but was actually only an hour. Mr Dickenson said he that he was staying for the rest of the evening along with the rest of the teams in case anybody wanted to ask him anything. The group spent the rest of the day playing games on Kai's Wii, the winner being a tie between Max and Ian who were both game addicts apparently. Six o'clock rolled round quickly and before they knew it, the teams were saying goodbye to each other and exchanging emails since they would be leaving the next day at different times. This almost caused an argument between Mariah and Rei since the Chinese boy told his old team that he staying in Russia so he could be with Kai but Lee, Gary and Kevin quickly pulled the girl into the car before anything serious happened, making sure that Rei promised to write to them. Once all the teams had gone and the Bladebreakers, Ian and Spencer were inside, Mr Dickenson turned to the three remaining Russians. He handed a brown envelope to Bryan.

"Here are the forms you asked for and the police agreed to what you asked when they heard about what happened. You don't need to worry about it anymore." Mr Dickenson told the boy, Tala and Ellie looking at the two confusedly. "I'll see you all next time there is a major competition. Goodbye!" Mr Dickenson waved goodbye as he stepped into his car and it drove off. The trio went back inside when the car was out of sight and Tala immediately turned on Bryan.

"What was that about?" Tala demanded. Bryan blushed a bit and looked away.

"Nothing." Bryan lied. Tala sighed and the falcon thought he had got away when the wolf suddenly pounced and took the envelope away from him. Tala opened the envelope and knelt down so Ellie could see as well. Tala's annoyed look softened into one of understanding. Tala looked up.

"Why didn't tell me you were trying to get us custody of Ellie?" Tala asked as he walked up to lover and embraced him.

"Well, technically, she's Murielle's because I'm still too young but they agreed to hand custody over to me when I am old enough…" Bryan mumbled, blushing even more than before. Suddenly, and fortunately for Bryan, Ellie ran up to her brother and hugged him as tightly as she could.

"Thank you." She whispered, sobbing slightly in happiness. "Thank you…"

* * *

**A/N:** I know the ending is a little weird and that it probably wouldn't be done like that but it needed to be done otherwise when it comes to later in the story and it still says that Ellie's mother is her legal guardian than it will be kind of awkward so yeah, please forgive me.

The thing about if you hear the sound when you're a baby then you can replicate it is true but I'm not sure if the time period is 6months or not. That is just according to my sister who I am trusting on this fact since she is a speech therapist. If the time scale is wrong, please tell me.

As always, I would like to thank everybody who even looked at this story, let alone reviewed/alerted/favourited it. It really helps my morale and makes me want to write more. Thanks again! Until next time!

Ja ne!


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Beyblade. I do own Ellie, Murielle and Kyuuborg. If only it was the other way round.

Sorry it's been such a long time since my last update! I'll try to update faster but I'm entering my GCSE year soon which means a _lot_ of homework. I'll try to update as fast as possible but I can't make any promises. Thanks to all my readers for waiting! Enjoy!

_

* * *

_

**Chapter Ten**

_Dream Sequence_

"_You bitch!"_

"_You little piece of shit!"_

"_You're worthless!"_

"_I almost died because of you!"_

"_Why can't you just disappear?"_

"_You're worse than your brother!"_

"_Why can't you just die already?"_

"_Stop crying, you weakling!"_

"_Don't answer back, you worthless bitch!"_

"_GET AWAY FROM ME!!!" _

Ellie shot up, sweat dripping of her brow as she panted heavily. A small sob escaped her lips and she furiously wiped away her tears only for them to be replaced by more. She bit back another sob and gave a small sniff instead.

'_Why? Why is it that my most painful memory of her is not one of when she was hurting me but when she told me to leave her alone? Why? It just doesn't make any sense!" _Ellie thought bitterly. She tried to get back to sleep but whenever she closed her eyes the shouting would start again. Ellie got out of her bed and walked quietly out of her room and to her brother's. The door gave a slight click as she opened and closed it and the small girl padded softly to where her Brother and his lover were sleeping. Bryan opened a bleary eye and wordlessly picked the girl up and placed her between him and Tala and stroked her head gently until she was lulled back into sleep.

Bryan gave a soft sigh. It had been a couple of weeks since everyone had left and, for some reason, Ellie's nightmares (or nightmemories, as he liked to call them) had increasing. They knew it wasn't anything she watched or read because they had checked that and she didn't see the maids often enough for them to say anything to her and Murielle…well, she was just Murielle. It definitely wasn't her. All Bryan knew was that the nightmares usually contained whatever his mother had said to Ellie and that at least one of those sentences was about him. He gave a soft growl of frustration and Ellie snuggled closer to him in a subconscious attempt to calm him down. He couldn't help but smile. This happened every time; he would growl and Ellie would try to calm him down even though she was asleep. Suddenly, he felt a hand on his arm. Bryan looked and was surprised to see Tala staring back at him.

"Don't worry, she'll be okay." Tala reassured him. Bryan nodded half-heartedly.

"Yeah, I gue-" Bryan stopped when he felt something wet hit his chest. He looked down to see that Ellie was shaking slightly and when he moved her slightly to see to her face, tears were falling from under her closed eyes. "Ellie?" Bryan and Tala sat up and Bryan leaned his little sister against his chest. "Ellie?" Bryan tried again. He admitted that he was scared. Even with the increasing number of nightly visits, this was the first time had ever started crying. Despite her supposedly fragile exterior, Ellie was actually very strong and hated it when people saw her cry.

"Don't…leave…me…" Ellie whimpered, tossing slightly in Bryan's arms. "Please…I'm…scared…help…" Ellie gave another small whimper before letting out a small scream. Bryan couldn't take it anymore. He shook the girl by the shoulders gently.

"Ellie, wake up! You're just dreaming, wake up!" Ellie woke with a start and looked at her brother, tears still pouring down her cheeks.

"Bryan…" She whispered tearfully before throwing her arms round his neck, openly sobbing. "Bryan! I w-was s-s-so s-scared!" She sobbed. Bryan just looked shocked for about a minute before Tala poked him and he slowly rubbed circles in the small of Ellie's back as she slowly calmed down.

"Don't worry. I won't leave you." Bryan promised quietly, putting his mouth next to her ear so Ellie could hear him over her sobs. The girl tightened her grip around his neck slightly. _'Come to think of it, we've all been really busy this last week. The only times Ellie and I have really seen each other has been during these night time visits. Being alone so much probably brought up bad memories. I know that I had more than one night where I was either locked in my bedroom or pushed outside when I was still living with _her_.' _Bryan thought, mentally kicking himself for missing something so glaringly obvious. Ellie turned round and held one her arms out for Tala who willingly joined in on the hug.

The trio stayed in the embrace for the rest of the night, Tala's arm round Ellie's waist, Ellie using Bryan's chest as her pillow and Bryan with his arms wrapped protectively round the two of them. Since there was a blizzard blowing and they were all used to the sun waking them up, they slept on. It was only when Kai and Rei came to wake them up for breakfast that they even moved. All being to tired to actually change into normal clothes, they went down stairs in the pyjamas, Ellie wearing long red pyjamas, Bryan with plain black jogging bottoms and a white T-shirt and Tala wearing grey jogging bottom and a blue long-sleeved T-shirt with a picture of a wolf on it. They walked slowly downstairs with Bryan carrying a barely conscious Ellie and Tala leaning on Bryan every step of the way. Kai and Rei raised an eyebrow at their friends' unusual behaviour but said nothing instead deciding to just make sure none of them killed themselves whilst going down the stairs.

Spencer and Ian raised their eyebrows as well when Bryan, Ellie and Tala walked into the kitchen. When they sat down Bryan closed his eyes, Tala slumped forwards and Ellie rested her head in her arms on the counter; all very unusual positions for the three usually very energetic people. It wasn't even because Bryan and Tala had been having sex all night!

"Bad night?" Spencer said sympathetically. All he received in answer to his question was a chorus of moans and groans. "Black coffee, no sugar it is then." Rei frowned.

"Is it good for Ellie to have caffeine?" He asked Kai.

"As long as it isn't too much and it's only used in emergencies like this, then yes." Kai answered his boyfriend. Rei sat back in his seat, mollified, as he watched as the three sleepy Russians gulped down the scorching coffee. They had all now progressed to having open eyes and sitting up with a only a slight slump, quite an improvement considering that they had almost been falling asleep.

"I guess that means no breakfast argument today, eh? And I just got a good insult as well…" Ian sighed, pretending to be disappointed but inwardly rejoicing at the fact that he wasn't going to get his butt whooped by Ellie yet again.

"With the way you're talking people would think that you actually _enjoy_ your arguments with Ellie." Spencer teased. Ian shrugged.

"Meh. You get used to it." Ian said casually as he reached for the pile of pancakes that Spencer had just set down on the table. "After a while, you start to notice a pattern in her insults. They are usually the same word repeated in several languages and it's usually an object in the room. All you need to do to counter it is drag her into a room with nothing in it and then she won't have any inspiration for her insults." The short Russian explained. Just then, Ellie mumbled something about Snorglesmurfs. Everybody looked at her weirdly.

"Something tells me that didn't have anything to do with the kitchen" Tala asked.

"What is a Snorglesmurf anyway?" Bryan asked.

"Small purple and green people that only come up to about your knee who like to steal your chocolate." Ellie replied matter-of-factly. Every body looked at Ian and immediately saw a resemblance. Ian had taken of his hat so you could now see his purplish hair, he was wearing all green that morning, he was quite short and he had a chocolate spread smothered pancake in front of him. Everybody tried to smother their laughs though a couple of sniggers still sneaked through their hands which caused Ian to gain an anger mark on his forehead. Ignoring his so-called 'friends', Ian turned to Ellie.

"Are those the things you were dreaming of when we had to sleep in the living room a couple of weeks ago?" He asked. Ellie nodded. Ian shook his head. "You have weird dreams." This time it was Ellie who shook her head.

"Not as weird as my dream about there being a war between oxygen-eaters and nitrogen-eaters." The small girl told them. She looked pensive for a moment. "I never did find out how that war ended…" By this time, everyone was looking at her slightly weirdly. "What?" She asked innocently.

"Nothing." Rei sighed grinning slightly. "I just wonder what the others would say if they saw you guys acting like this. To be honest, I'm surprised I haven't asked where the real Demolition Boys' are."

"When Boris was around we weren't allowed to act 'normally'." Tala explained grimacing slightly as he remembered his time in the Abbey. Suddenly, he gave a small grin. "But the stuff we got up to when he wasn't there…"

"Remember that time when Boris was away on a business trip so we sneaked into his office and found that pink dress?" Ian snorted. Spencer laughed.

"Yeah, I remember that one! We knocked out one of the guards and put him in that dress and then put him in Boris' office and the best bit was that the guard came to just as Boris was walking in!" He snickered. Rei shook his head in disbelief.

"That's exactly what Mariah did to me once though it was my mum's dress." He told them. "She also covered me in make-up. My mum was really scary when she found out because it turned out that it was her favourite dress."

"No wonder you're gay, what with having Mariah and a scary mother." Tala commented.

"And Aunt Adelaida." Rei shivered. "Whenever I went to her house she would always put me in a dress and make me dance with her son, Chandre." Everybody raised an eyebrow at the slightly girlish name but said nothing.

"Women are scary." Kai concluded after a few moments of silence. Bad move.

"What did you say young Master Kai?" Kai froze and haltingly turned round to see Murielle surrounded by a dark aura.

"M-murielle! I c-can explain!" Kai stammered in fright. Murielle ignored his plea and grabbed him by the arm.

"You know, the library hasn't been dusted in a long time and I'm getting to old to be climbing those ladders. Maybe you could do it for me?" Murielle all but asked as she dragged a fearful Kai out of the kitchen and into the void beyond.

"…He was a brave man." Bryan said solemnly. They all nodded.

"Shouldn't someone help him?" Ellie asked. The remaining Russians looked at her sceptically.

"Ellie, you know that nobody can stop Murielle once she gets going." Ian explained slowly. Ellie shook her head.

"That is only partially true." The girl said seriously. "There is one thing that will always stop Murielle in her tracks and put her in a good mood."

"What?" Tala inquired. Ellie glanced from side to side conspiratorially before leaning in and whispering one word:

"Flattery."

"Flattery?" Rei repeated.

"Flattery." Ellie confirmed.

"How is flattery going to help us though?" Spencer pointed out. Ellie sighed as if it was obvious before leaning in again and forcing everyone into a kind of huddle.

"This is the plan…" Ellie whispered the plan. After much deliberation the final plan had been perfected.

"Is everyone ready?" Bryan asked. Everybody nodded. "Then Operation 'Save Kai From Murielle Using Any Means Necessary' is a go!"

_Library_

Kai coughed as a shed load of dust blew off the shelf. Why couldn't the others have told him that Murielle was there? Then he wouldn't be in trouble! At least Murielle recognised that he was way past the smacked bottom stage otherwise he wouldn't be able to sit down for a week! Kai coughed again.

"Just because you cough doesn't mean I'll pity you and relent!" Murielle called up from the bottom of the ladder. Kai sighed and smothered another cough. Man, when was the last time these shelves were dusted?

"Excuse me, Murielle?" Kai heard Rei ask from the door. He turned his head slightly so he was able to see his lover. "I was wondering if you could maybe show me how to make those banana and chocolate muffins that you made last week? They were really delicious but I can't find the recipe anyway…"

"Of course, Rei, I'd be happy to show you!" Kai could practically hear the smile in her voice. "Shall we go now?"

"If it isn't a bad time then yes please." Rei replied before giving a slight pause. "However, there is one problem. You are a really nice woman so you wouldn't tell me if I went wrong so I thought it would be best if we had somebody taste test them but everybody else is busy." Kai could almost hear Murielle frowning.

"Well, I suppose Kai could be the taste tester." Murielle suggested after a few moments of thought. "It's not like he's really busy."

"Are you sure? I mean, you were really mad at him half an hour ago. Does he really deserve such delicious muffins?" Kai felt like strangling Rei. Did he want Kai to stay there and cough to death?"

"Oh, don't worry about that! Kai just needed a quick lesson in manners which I think he has learned by now." Kai was practically crying in happiness now. No more dusty books to make him choke! It was a miracle! "Kai, come on down! We need you to do something for us!"

"Coming, Murielle!" Kai called back down the ladder as he quickly scrambled to safety. He threw his boyfriend a grateful glance and Rei sent back a slightly mischievous grin as they followed the old woman out of the Library of Doom and into the Kitchen of Heaven.

Bryan, Ellie, Ian, Spencer and Tala watched warily as Murielle walked past the room they were playing Monopoly in. If she found out that they were busy because they were playing a board game and that was why Rei didn't ask them than she would surely think something was going on. Fortunately, she walked past the room without noticing anything and Rei gave them a thumbs up as he walked past much to Kai's confusion.

"Mission accomplished." Tala said as soon as Murielle was far away. Everybody gave a sigh of relief as they turned back to the game.

"By the way Ellie, how did you know that would work?" Ian asked. "I mean, when did you become so evil?"

"I don't know myself." Ellie replied as she moved her top hat five places. "I think it might be the caffeine though." It was decided there and then that Ellie could never have caffeine ever again.

* * *

**A/N:** Sorry if the ending's a bit weird but everybody needs there evil side! I don't know where I would be without mine!

Once again, thanks to everybody who has reviewed/favourited/alerted/read this story. Until next time!


	11. Chapter 11

I'm so sorry that's it has been so long since my last update. I have no excuse other than bad time keeping and I promise that I'll try to update quicker. Thank you to everyone who waited patiently, I couldn't live without you! Now for something I haven't said for nearly two months:

_**Disclaimer:**_I do not own Beyblade

* * *

**_Chapter Eleven_**

Ellie tugged nervously at her blue plaid skirt as she waited to be into the classroom. She had waited close to three years for this day and it was finally here; it was her first day of school. She gulped as she peeped into the classroom before quickly backing away. There were so many other kids in there! She was only just okay with the Bladebreakers, how was she going to handle a whole class staring at her?!? Ellie breathed in and let out a shaky breath in an attempt to soothe her nerves. She hesitantly stepped closer to the door again and had another peek. All the other children were looking at the teacher, Mrs Radimov. Ellie gulped again.

"…Now children, I have one more announcement to make before we start our lessons. As all of you are aware of, Aleksi moved away during the holidays. His seat, however, will not be left empty since starting from today we will have a new student joining our number. Please welcome Ellie Kuznetsov!" Ellie gave one final gulp before timidly entering the classroom. She shied away slightly as all the students' eyes settled on her but Mrs Radimov started speaking before the instinct to run away took over completely. "Ellie had poor health when she was younger and up until now has been homeschooled so please be nice to her and show her how things are done around here."

"Yes Mrs Radimov!" The class chorused as they began to think of ways to tease the poor girl. Mrs Radimov, oblivious to the class' evil thoughts, beamed.

"Good." She said. "Ellie, please take the seat between Yerik and Nicholai." Ellie made her way to the desk quickly and it wasn't long before her first maths lesson was underway. Despite being the first day of school, Mrs Radimov decided to jump straight into multiplications and succeeded in confusing around half the class.

"Miss, it's too hard!" One of the girls whined as the rest of the confused ones nodded in agreement. Mrs Radimov sighed exasperatedly.

"Come on class, it isn't that hard! Now, what is three times seven, hmm? Ellie?" She asked hopefully, silently praying that the new girl had some hidden talent for maths. Ellie looked up slightly startled, not expecting to be picked on so soon.

"Twenty-one." She answered on instinct. The teacher almost cried for joy. Finally, a student who actually knew the answer!

"Correct!" Mrs Radimov exclaimed happily. "See, class, it isn't that hard! Now, Ellie, I don't suppose you know what seven times eight is, do you?" The teacher asked slyly, positive that Ellie wouldn't be able to do it.

"Fifty-six." Ellie answered automatically. Mrs Radimov's eyes opened in shock and the class let out an impressed sound. None of the others knew the answer and even if they were capable of working it out none of them would be able to work it out in the few milliseconds that it seemed to take Ellie. This girl was good! Mrs Radimov recollected herself and decided to test Ellie's abilities in the hardest way possible.

"Okay then, what is 123 times 321?" The class gasped. No way would she be able to work that out. Mrs Radimov smirked. Ellie might be good at maths but she was the teacher! Mrs Radimov opened her mouth to tell Ellie not to worry if she couldn't do it but Ellie beat her to it by saying:

"Thirty-nine thousand four hundred and eighty-three." The class gave an ooh of awe and Mrs Radimov almost keeled over. She quickly grabbed her calculator and paled upon doing the sum. She looked up at Ellie.

"She's right…" Mrs Radimov said quietly before flushing in anger. "You'd better not be using a calculator Miss Kuznetsov!"

"I'm not." Ellie said simply, cocking her head to one side in confusion. Mrs Radimov scowled as she heard what she thought was a lie and stormed over to Ellie's desk.

"Stand up!" She barked as she pulled Ellie up roughly by the shoulder, expecting to see a calculator fall to the ground. She growled when she saw no such thing. She turned to Yerik. "Was she using a calculator?"

"No Mrs Radimov." He answered politely. She looked sharply at Nicholai who said the same thing. Mrs Radimov gave a slight snarl. No way was an eight-year-old girl going to outsmart her!

"I don't know how you did it, Kuznetsov, but there is no way you could've done that sum without a calculator! Now, tell me: where is it?!?!" Mrs Radimov shouted. Ellie couldn't help but recoil slightly in fear. Before she stammer once more that she hadn't used a calculator, the door banged open.

"Mrs Radimov, could you please keep it down? I'm trying to teach an English class and you're shouting isn't helping them to get back into the swing of things!" The male teacher in the doorway berated the other mentor.

"I'm sorry Mr Beloi but I have just caught one of my students cheating and she is refusing to admit it!" Mrs Radimov explained heatedly. Nicholai piped up.

"But she wasn't Miss. I was watching her the whole time and her hands were on the desk. She couldn't have been using a calculator." He said innocently.

"Don't lie to me Nicholai!" His teacher snapped. Mr Beloi rubbed his temple to delay his oncoming headache.

"If it bothers you that much then why don't you take her to the headmaster?" He suggested. "I'll even take her if you don't want to leave your class." Mrs Radimov grumbled a bit under her breath before giving her begrudging assent. She let go of Ellie's shoulder and the small girl hurried after the disappearing form of Mr Beloi.

'Great, this is just great!' She thought sarcastically. 'I've been at school for less than half an hour and I'm already in trouble, for something I didn't do no less! This is what I waited three years for?' Ellie rubbed her shoulder absentmindedly as she walked. Mrs Radimov had sharp fingernails.

Mr Beloi spared the girl a glance and felt slightly sorry for her. His fellow teacher didn't like it when her students appeared smarter than her and she had a terrible habit of jumping to conclusions whenever it happened. This was just another one of those cases. It wasn't long before they were outside the headmaster's office. Mr Beloi opened the door and led her in. Ellie looked up and gasped at who she saw the headmaster was already talking to.

"Bryan! Tala!" She squeaked. The two mentioned people looked at the girl in surprise.

"I know you're related to Bryan, Ellie, but I didn't think you would be in trouble already!" Tala said jokingly. Ellie's eyes watered up slightly and she looked away. Bryan and Tala shared confused looks.

"What is going on Mr Beloi? As you can see, I was in the middle of something." The headmaster asked irritably. The teacher gave his superior a quick run down of what had happened. The Headmaster nodded in understanding before letting Mr Beloi leave before beckoning Ellie over so that she was standing next to Bryan.

"Mr Kuznetsov, you said that your sister had a fear of older women, right?" Bryan nodded. He turned to Ellie. "Miss Kuznetsov, did this fear make you cheat because you didn't want Mrs Radimov to shout at you?" Ellie shook her head vigorously.

"I don't even have my calculator with me. I forgot to put in my bag." Ellie explained as she nervously held on to Bryan's sleeve. The headmaster thought for a moment before talking again.

"What was the sum?"

"123 times 321 sir." Ellie answered sincerely.

"What?!?" Tala cried out. "Even if you could answer it you still should not have been asked that question!" The headmaster held up a hand and the redhead grudgingly quieted down. The man looked into Ellie's pixie green eyes to find any hint of a lie. He found none.

"Mr Chastakorlenka, with all due respect, Ellie would not lie. She's too honest to even think about lying." Bryan spoke up for the first time since Ellie's arrival. He picked his little sister up, placed her on his lap and put his arms round her protectively. Mr Chastakorlenka hid a small smile.

"I know." The trio looked at him in surprise. "I am an old friend of Murielle's and when she enrolled young Miss Kuznetsov here I asked her what she was like. I can assure you that what she said was most favourable. Besides, this happens every year. Mrs Radimov decides that a child is too smart for their own good and picks on them. It's nothing to worry about."

"So I'm not in trouble?" Ellie asked uncertainly. The headmaster smiled.

"No, you're not in trouble." Ellie let out a small sigh of relief. "However, I do not think that it would be beneficial for you to return to that class. If your brother gives me permission, I would like to put you through some tests to see if you should be in a higher class or at least getting advanced lessons in certain subject areas. Is that alright with you?" The siblings nodded. "Very well. You won't be able to take the test for a few days so I suggest you go home and study. And don't worry; I'll speak to Mrs Radimov." The trio before him nodded and stood up to leave. They shook his hand one by one. When he got to Ellie she whispered a small thank you. The old man smiled as the girl ran out after her brother and his lover. This was going to be an interesting school year…

"Honestly, what is the world coming to these days?" Tala pouted as they walked out of the school gates and to the car. "How dare they accuse my Ellie of cheating! Why, when I was kid, if you got a question like that right you were hailed like God but noooo, now you get treated as a freaking criminal!" Bryan and Ellie shared a look.

"Tala?" Bryan said. His koi looked at him expectantly. "You sound like an old man." Tala squawked in protest and the two siblings let out small laughs as they got into the car. Ellie smiled happily. All was right in the world again.

_One Week Later_

Ellie gulped as she once again walked down the hallway to her new classroom, this time with Mr Chastakorlenka by her side. She had passed the test and was being moved to a class of ten-year-olds. She bit her lip nervously as they stopped outside the door, vaguely wondering who her new tutor was. She hoped that they were kind, patient and sane.

"Class, a new student will be joining your midst today. She is younger than you but that is no reason to look down on her. May I please introduce to you, Ellie Kuznetsov." Mr Chastakorlenka said before turning to the nervous girl. "I hope that you have a better time here than with Mrs Radimov and that you enjoy being taught by Mr Beloi."

Well, one out of three isn't bad…

* * *

This chapter was kind of weird in my opinion but I really wanted her to go to school and she is smarter than your average eight-year-old so this is what I came up with. I know it sounds a bit Matilda-ry but I hope you still enjoyed it. Thanks once again reading this chapter. UNtil next time!

Ja ne!


	12. Chapter 12

**_Disclaimer: I do not own anything so get off my back already! Stupid lawyers..._**

Sorry it has been so long since I last updated. I've got loads of exams coming up so updates are going to be few and far between. I should be able to get back on top of things by the end of July though; all my exams will definitely be over by then and I should have loads of free time by then. I know it's a long time but please be patient and I'll try to put a chapter up sooner if possible. Here's something to tide you over until then. Enjoy!

* * *

Ellie gave a slight cry as she fell over yet again. It was Friday afternoon and they were doing basketball in PE. Ellie hated it. It wasn't that she was no good at it; it was more the fact that she was a lot smaller than everyone else and they kept falling over her! She was going to have some magnificent bruises in the morning…

Ellie quickly picked herself up and ran after the rest of the team. It wasn't long before she was tripped over again (you think they would've figured out not to pass the ball to her by now…) and she was almost cried with relief when Mr Beloi blew the whistle and told everyone to get changed before they went home. Hopefully the weekend would be long enough for the bruises to heal. She quickly changed into her uniform which consisted of white socks, black shoes, a white shirt, a black blazer with the school crest over the left breast, a blue plaid skirt and a matching bow around her neck.

Ellie slowly walked outside, limping slightly as she went. She shivered as a cold wind swept past her and she quickly hurried over to where Bryan and Tala were waiting. She clambered into the car, sighing softly in thanks as her body was encompassed by the warmth inside the car. She did up her seat belt as Bryan pulled away from the building.

"Where did you get that bruise from? Please don't tell that you're taking after Bryan!" Tala cried dramatically as he turned round in his seat to face Ellie. Bryan just gave a small grunt and glared at his lover slightly from the corner of his eye. Ellie grimaced at the question. Too many painful memories…

"I don't think that I like basketball…" She said softly by means of explanation. Tala and Bryan's imaginations came up with several scenes when they heard this and let's just say that they weren't far off the mark. They both winced.

"Hopefully the weekend will be long enough for the bruises to heal." Bryan said sympathetically. Ellie just nodded. Something told her that she wasn't going to like Friday afternoons…

It wasn't long before they were home and walking through the front door but instead of being met with a cacophony of noise there was nothing. No noise from one of Ian's many video games, none of Murielle's music, not even the sound of Kai and Rei arguing over Beyblade techniques as they were prone to doing. They gave each other puzzled glances. Something was off. Tala suggested looking in the kitchen which the other two quickly agreed to; anything to find their friends and return the mansion to its normal, less than tranquil state.

It took them no longer than a few minutes to reach the kitchen and the trio stopped abruptly when they walked in. Sitting on the kitchen floor was a pouting and sullen Rei who was holding a small black and white kitten. Spencer, Ian and Kai sat round him whilst Murielle got some milk out the fridge. Tala was the first to break the silence.

"What's with the kitten?" He asked as he walked further into the room. The group looked up at the new arrivals.

"Kai and I went shopping earlier and as we walked back to the car we heard a meow. We looked down and saw him just sitting there inside a cardboard box. Since the poor little guy was freezing and obviously abandoned, we couldn't leave him there so we decided to bring him home with us." Rei explained.

"So Hiwatari has a heart after all." Bryan snorted. Kai glared at him.

"Be quiet Kuznetsov!" He snapped. Ellie raised an eyebrow. Didn't he realise that there were two Kuznetsovs in the room? She decided to just ignore it and turned to Rei or rather the kitten in his arms.

"Have you checked to see if he's been chipped?" She enquired. Rei nodded.

"We took him to a nearby vet's and they said he didn't have one as well as several other things." Rei's voice was hard and his eyes flashed with anger. Obviously, the 'other things' had not been to his liking.

"They said that it was a runt and would die soon no matter what they did and offered to put it down right there and then." Kai elaborated for the clueless arrivals.

"Does that mean we're keeping it?" Tala asked.

"Well we're not leaving it on the streets! It would die for real if we did that." Murielle jumped in as she handed a small baby bottle full of milk to Rei.

"We're going to have to name it then. We can't keep calling it 'It' forever." Spencer pointed out. Everybody nodded.

"What are we going to call it then?" Ian asked. There was a silence before-

"What about Yuki?" Ellie suggested. The kitten stopped drinking and looked up as he heard the name and gave a small meow. Everybody looked down at the small cat.

"So you like the name Yuki, huh?" Rei asked, a small smile gracing his lips. The kitten looked towards Rei and let out a satisfied meow before curling up on the boy's lap. "Yuki it is then. Well named Ellie." The small girl blushed slightly.

"Thank you…" Ellie whispered as she hid behind Bryan slightly. "We'd better find her somewhere to sleep…"

"Oh, don't worry about that. We have several old cushions in the loft that we can use." Murielle said briskly. "Come on Kai, I still haven't forgiven for that 'troublesome woman' comment!"

"But that was over a month ago now!" Kai whined as the old maid dragged him out of the kitchen by his ear.

"You should still know better than to say things like that!" Murielle countered. The remaining children sweat dropped. Rei got up to follow his boyfriend, Yuki still in his arms. He stopped in the doorway, a pensive look upon his face. He turned round and kneeled down in front of Ellie.

"Do you mind looking after Yuki for a while, Ellie?" Rei asked quietly. Ellie nodded and gently took the kitten away from the neko-jin. During the transaction, Yuki awoke. The bi-coloured kitten looked up at Ellie confused and sniffed Ellie's face. Finally deciding that the young girl was alright, Yuki meowed contentedly and licked Ellie's face before settling down to go back to sleep. Ellie blushed slightly, a small smile on her lips. Rei grinned before standing up quickly and sprinting after the two retreating Russians.

Ellie looked shyly down at the kitten in her arms, stroking Yuki's stomach fur lightly.

_8:30 pm_

The moon was high in the sky and all of the houses inhabitants were gathered in the living room. Murielle was knitting; Kai was teaching Rei some basic Russian; Spencer, Bryan and Tala were playing Old Maid; and to finish it all off, Ian and Ellie were playing with Yuki in front of the fireplace. They were wiggling an old shoelace in front of the small kitten and giggling as the small cat tried to pounce on it. Bryan and Tale both smiled as they watched the two play, not noticing as Spencer leaned over and peaked at their cards. Tala glanced up at the clock and walked over to Ellie.

"Ellie, it's time for you to go to bed." He said as he picked her up. Ellie looked up at him and gave him a pout/glare. Unfortunately for her, it just made her look cuter and make Tala squeal and hug her.

"If you go to bed now then you can get up early tomorrow and play with Yuki." Bryan persuaded the small girl, trying not to laugh at her expense. Ellie's expression brightened and she deftly wriggled out of Tala's grip so she could hug and say good night to everyone. She waved good night one last time before allowing Tala to pick her up once more and take her to her bedroom.

"Well, that was unusual." Spencer said quietly to Bryan.

"What was?" Bryan asked as he tried to figure who had the joker card.

"The fact that Ellie put up resistance. Usually she doesn't mind when you tell her to go to bed." Bryan glanced at him.

"I suppose you're right but I don't really mind. It was kinda childish, I admit, but it means that she's finally get the childhood that we missed out on." Bryan said as he set his cards down. "I have a feeling Yuki brought out that childish side."

"I guess you're right." Spencer agreed. "Wanna look at Tala's cards?"

"Sure." When Tala came back from reading to Ellie he was predictably thrashed.

* * *

When Bryan and Tala came down the next morning the first thing they saw was Ellie and Ian in the living room. Ellie was holding on to Yuki and was giggling quietly whilst Ian held on to his apparently sore nose.

"Why'd you do that ya dumb cat?" Ian growled as he lowered his hands to reveal four angry red scratch marks raking across his nose. Ellie tried to keep a straight face.

"Maybe seeing your nose first thing in the morning scared her." Ellie teased, her smile taking on a slightly more wicked slant. "Don't worry though, Cameron, I'm sure you'll grow into your nose one day." Ian squawked in protest, the only thing stopping him from pouncing on the younger girl being that kitten that was nestled in her arms. The watching couple stepped into the living room.

"Come on now Ellie, don't tease Ian so much." Bryan berated very lightly. Ian turned his watery joyful eyes to Bryan, ready to worship his saviour. Bryan decimated his hopes moments later. "His brain might not be able to handle your insults this early in the morning." Ellie and Tala laughed as Ian pouted and turned his back on the them.

"Sorry Ian. It was to good an opportunity to pass up." Ellie apologised as she carefully stood up, making sure not to jolt the little kitten in her arms. "The others should be up now so why don't we go and get some breakfast?" Ian stopped pouting and agreed, cheering up at the thought of pancakes. He loved Saturdays…

Ellie was right about everybody being up. Spencer was cooking the pancakes, Kai was downing his coffee and Rei was placing a small bowl of milk on the floor. Yuki smelt the milk and wriggled in Ellie's arms until the girl put her down. Yuki shot over to the bowl, lapping up the creamy liquid happily. Ian and Ellie quick washed their hands before sitting down and digging into their own breakfast. Bryan watched his little sister throughout the meal, glad to see that she was so happy. Ellie rarely dropped her smile but Bryan could tell that underneath the surface she still remembered the scars her mother had left and was scared that it would happen again. Now, however, her smile was full of pure happiness, no strings attached. Bryan was glad.

Murielle and Rei held them back after breakfast, giving them all a quick rundown on how to take proper care of cats. Ellie listened attentively, not wanting to do a single thing wrong that could hurt Yuki. This was the first time she had ever had a pet and it was completely against her nature to hurt animals.

"Okay, I think that's everything. Any questions?" Rei asked. They all shook their heads. "Good. Just remember those basic points and nothing should go wrong." With done and dusted, everybody started to move. Ellie headed towards the kitchen door, planning on going upstairs and getting dressed when Yuki padded over and rubbed her head against Ellie's leg meowing pitifully. Ellie knelt down.

"Don't worry; I'll be back in a minute. I just need to go and get dressed." Ellie tried to explain to the small animal. She rubbed Yuki's head one last time before getting up again. Before she could leave, however, Yuki meowed again and rested her front paws on Ellie's leg. The small girl bit her lip; she needed to get dressed but she didn't want the kitten to think that she hated her. Ellie was torn. Bryan couldn't help but grin slightly. He ruffled his sister's hair.

"Why don't you just have a pyjama day?" He suggested. Ellie raised her eyebrows slightly, the thought obviously not having crossed her mind.

"Can I?" Bryan nodded. "Thank you!" Ellie threw her arms round Bryan's torso and hugged him as tightly as she could (not very) before moving away and picking Yuki up gently. Bryan smiled as he watched the eight-year-old walk out of the room, talking softly to the little kitten in her arms. Bryan stood there for a few moments before stretching and walking out of the kitchen to face Tala. He kissed his koibito lightly on the lips. Tala pushed him away, a small smile playing on his lips.

"What are you doing here? Usually you're the first one upstairs so you can get the bathroom before me." Tala asked. Bryan stretched again and gave a small smile.

"I think I'm just gonna have a pyjama day today." He said as he folded his arms behind his head and made his way after Ellie, pointedly ignoring the spluttering Tala. Everybody deserved a day off once in a while…

Ellie spent most of her weekend with Yuki, not that the little cat seemed to mind; it actually craved the attention it garnered from Ellie. Even when the girl was doing her homework, Yuki would sit on her lap and watch the girl's hand move across the paper. According to Rei, when Ellie went back to school on Monday the little cat seemed depressed. Yuki practically attacked Ellie when she came home. Life carried on normally for the motley family and their new pet. That is until Wednesday evening came round. Nothing really happened until after dinner when they were all in the living room. Ian and Ellie were teasing Yuki with a shoelace again but for some reason the kitten didn't seem as energetic or coordinated as usual. When Yuki tried to pounce on the shoelace not only did she miss the shoelace completely, she also overbalanced and fell into a table leg. Ellie worried her lip as she picked up the young animal and placed her gently on her cushion. Rei walked over.

"What's going on?" He asked. Ian shrugged.

"I have no idea. Yuki was perfectly fine this morning." He said. Rei frowned.

"Strange how a seemingly perfectly healthy cat can become so down in such a short space of time." Rei whispered to himself. He looked at Ellie who was stroking the kitten's head soothingly and sighed. It was always much harder when little kids were involved. "I'll take Yuki to see the vet's tomorrow. It's probably just a cold or something." Ellie nodded, obviously thinking that if Rei had said it than it had to be true. He was the 'cat guru' after all, as Spencer had jokingly put it a couple of days ago. Ellie stroked the kitten one more time before allowing Tala to pull her to her feet and take her to bed.

Rei was as good as his word. Whilst Ellie was at school on Thursday, he took Yuki to see the vet. Ellie couldn't concentrate during her lessons and was the first out of the door when the bell rang, almost forgetting her coat in her haste to get home. When she walked into the kitchen, Ellie could tell that something was wrong though everyone tried to paste on smiles.

"Turns out I was right. It is just a cold. The vet gave me some medicine. Yuki should be as good as new in a couple of days." Rei said in short sentences, obviously trying to convince the girl without letting on that he was lying. Ellie could tell though. Rei was very bad at lying. They were all trying so hard though and she didn't want that effort to go to waste. She also didn't want to believe what they were not saying. She decided to play along. She put her hands to her chest, sighed and put on what she hoped was a smile of relief.

"That's good. I was really worried for a moment. I'm glad Yuki's going to be okay." Ellie tried to say happily. Her voice cracked a tiny bit in the middle but fortunately nobody noticed. "Do you mind if I give Yuki her medicine?" Rei nodded and handed the kitten to Ellie. The girl made sure to put the appropriate expressions on as Rei talked her through how to give Yuki the pill. She spent her whole evening watching over the kitten, barely moving from her spot in front of the fire. Way too quickly for the girl, it was eight o'clock and Tala was helping her up the stairs with Bryan right behind them for once.

"Good night, sleep tight; don't let the bed bugs bite." Tala whispered as he kissed the girl on forehead. Ellie giggled slightly and Bryan smiled as he hugged his sister.

"Calm down now, Ellie. You don't want to be too tired tomorrow." Bryan said even though it was his fault that she was slightly hyper; he and Tala kept putting on funny voice as they read to Ellie. The girl grinned apologetically and snuggled down underneath her duvet. She waved good night to Tala and Bryan one last time before they shut the door and left Ellie in the darkness. It was only then that she let on that she knew. Tears poured down her cheeks and she bit her lip in an attempt to muffle her sobs. She dived underneath her duvet where she wept herself to sleep…

* * *

It was Friday afternoon once more which meant it was PE. Ellie didn't really care, though. She wasn't concentrating on the ball properly and as a result got even more beat up than she had the previous week. All she could think about was the little kitten at home. That morning Yuki had been just as bad, if not worse, then she had been the night before and Ellie couldn't get rid of grim feeling that rested in her gut. She was glad when Mr Beloi finally blew his whistle. She shot off to the changing rooms and was already dragging on her shoes by the time the other girls came in.

It was quiet, just like the previous week when Rei had brought Yuki. This silence didn't feel comfortable though. This one felt slightly ominous. She peeked into the living room where she saw everyone else in front of the fireplace; in front of Yuki's cushion. Tala gently pushed her into the room. Ellie bit her lip as she slowly walked forward and knelt down next to Rei. Yuki was lying on her cushion, her little eyes half open and her sides moving up and down as she struggled to breathe. Ellie looked at Rei who nodded and she leaned forward to pick up the kitten. She cradled Yuki gently in her arms. The kitten opened its eyes fully and leaned forward to lick Ellie on the cheek one last time before falling back and closing her eyes. Ellie's hair fell forward to hide her face as tears fell from her eyes. Bryan hugged her as Murielle took the dead kitten off the girl. Ellie threw her arms round Bryan's neck and let the tears flow freely.

"She's been struggling all day. I think Yuki was waiting to see you one last time." Tala said softly as he knelt down next to the siblings. Ellie sniffed softly as she hid her face in Bryan's chest. Ellie cried on and off for the rest of the day, sometimes not even noticing the liquid pouring down her cheeks. They buried Yuki at the bottom of the garden, erecting a small wooden cross over where they had buried her. Ellie barely touched her dinner and stuck close to Bryan for the rest of the evening. When Bryan and Tala went to bed, barely half-an-hour after they had settled down for the night Ellie came in. Ellie bit her lip and tried not to cry but the odd tear still strayed down her face.

Bryan got up early the next morning. Tala opened a bleary eye but Bryan put a finger to his lips. Tala nodded and put his arms round Ellie as he drifted back into unconsciousness. Bryan silently slipped out of the room and wasn't seen again for about another hour.

The door creaked as it opened and Ellie stirred. She slowly sat up, Tala beside her. She rubbed the sleep away from her eyes and saw a fully-dressed Bryan sitting down on the bed. He was hiding something.

"I know it's not exactly the same as a pet but it's something for you to hold on to when you're upset." Bryan mumbled as he blushed and gave Ellie the hidden item; a fox plush. Ellie took it silently, holding it gently. She it her lip as she felt tears welling up again. She threw her arms round Bryan's neck.

"Thank you…" She whispered. "Thank you…"


	13. Chapter 13

Finally, Chapter Thirteen! Sorry it has been so long since I last updated. I'm not going to bore you with a long and meaningless list of excuses but hopefully now that it's summer updates should come a bit more regularly.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Beyblade. I do, however, own Ellie and Murielle.

_**Warning: **_Some of the characters might seem a bit OOC, particularly Bryan. Sorry 'bout that.

* * *

_**Chapter Thirteen**_

It was barely the start of November and already winter was starting to sink its claws in. It was a Tuesday evening and outside the window a blanket of white stretched for miles. It was nearing eight o'clock and Ellie's bedtime. I would say that it was a perfectly normal evening but, to put it frankly, it wasn't. Tala and Bryan had had an argument. Not a small argument that could be solved by kissing each other senseless; a big argument that was still raging on now even though it had started over an hour ago. Nobody knew how the argument had started or even what it was about but they did know one thing; Bryan and Tala were _loud_.

"I'm gonna go to bed." Ellie said quietly as she sneaked out of the room and past the duelling duo. The others nodded their goodnights, none of them wanting to attract Tala and Bryan's attention. Ellie crept into her bedroom and quickly dove under her warm covers. She jammed the pillow over her head in an attempt to block out the noise. It helped marginally but when the need to breathe became to strong she retreated from her safe haven. Ellie curled up on her side and covered her ears with her hands as she resigned herself to a sleepless night…

When she got up that morning, Ellie was far from well rested. When Bryan and Tala had finally retreated to their room they had carried on arguing at the tops of their voices and when they had eventually stopped yelling the silence had been so unbearable that Ellie couldn't fall asleep. By the time she walked into the kitchen, her hair trailing messily down her back and her shoes somehow on the wrong feet, she had managed to get a grand total of fifteen minutes of sleep…and that was when she was suppose to be brushing her teeth.

When she walked in, Murielle immediately started fussing over the girl, brushing her hair and sorting out her shoes. Ellie just blinked blearily as Spencer set the breakfast down and pulled her on to his lap. Rei leaned down to whisper into Ian's ear.

"Is it a good idea to send Ellie to school to day?" He asked quietly. Ian nodded.

"It's either that or make her stay home and listen to those two go at it all day." He murmured through his toast-filled mouth. The Chinese boy nodded in understanding as he turned back to his tea. After minutes that dragged on like hours, Spencer announced that it was time to take Ellie to school if she wanted to be there on time. The small girl blinked blearily as she slowly registered the words and nodded. She slid off Spencer's lap as the tall male stood up and took her hand. Ian scrambled after them, not wanting to be there when the arguing couple woke up. He was unlucky, however, as just as they were opening the front door the sound of shouting reached their ears. Ellie cringed slightly as Ian yanked her outside and slammed the door shut behind them.

"Don't worry about it, they'll make up eventually. Just ignore it until then, Elliephant." Ian said as they got in the car and did up their seatbelts. Ellie seemed confused as she tried to work out the nickname and glared when it clicked.

"Don't call me that, Cameron." She pouted. Ian grinned impishly.

"But it's a compliment! Elephants have really good memory!" He exclaimed. Spencer grinned as the two entered a long discussion about what animals were flattering and which weren't. Ellie was a lot more awake by the time they got to the school and she was holding her sides as she laughed at Ian. She got out the car and Spencer wound down the window.

"Ellie, I'm not going to be able to pick you this afternoon; Murielle has asked me to drive her to town and Ian's coming with us. Kai and Rei said that they were shopping as well so either Tala or Bryan will pick you up. If they are still fighting then just ignore them." He explained. Ellie nodded, her smile dropping slightly.

"Thanks Spencer. I'll see you two tonight." Ellie waved goodbye as she ran through the school gates as the bell rang.

Ellie had a lot of trouble concentrating that day. She was worried about Tala and Bryan, wondering if they had made up yet, and also, for some reason, her head felt strangely foggy. She was glad that she didn't have PE that day for Ellie was sure that in her current state of mind she would get hurt at least twice as much as usual. When Ellie left the school grounds she searched for a familiar car or (hopefully) two familiar faces. She saw nothing but decided that she just couldn't see Tala or Bryan because she was so short and that she should wait until the crowd thinned.

The crowd thinned quickly, no child wanting to stay at school and no adult wanting to stay out in the cold. Ellie pushed herself off the wall she was leaning against and looked around again. Still nothing. By this time, she was the only one left and after waiting another fifteen minutes she sighed resignedly and started the long trek home.

_At Hiwatari Manor_

Spencer winced as he opened the door and loud voices reached his ears. Bryan and Tala were still going at it. The blonde sighed as he dumped his shopping in the kitchen and slowly jogged upstairs towards Ellie's room. He knocked on the door before opening it and looking inside. He was puzzled to see the room empty; he had felt so sure that Ellie would be in there. Spencer closed the door and quickly walked round the mansion, checking every room to see if Ellie was there. When he came up empty handed, Spencer headed towards the living room where Tala and Bryan were. He cleared his throat loudly, ignoring the glares he got in return.

"Do you know where Ellie is?" He asked. Before either of the boys could answer a voice came from behind Spencer.

"She's right here, Spencer." Kai said as he stepped to the side to show Rei carrying Ellie. "We saw her walking home as we were coming back in the car." Spencer glared at Bryan and Tala, both of whom had the decency to look embarrassed.

"You two…" Spencer growled. Kai and Rei quickly walked out of the room, smartly closing the door as Spencer started yelling at the two feuding males. As Kai headed towards the kitchen, Rei went upstairs, snagging one of the maids on his way. The maid gave Ellie a warm bath and helped the girl put on her pyjamas before leaving the room. Rei grabbed a hairdryer and started to dry Ellie's hair thoroughly, not switching of the machine until every patch of hair was dry. He frowned when he noticed the girl shivering despite the fact that the heating was on. Rei looked up when he heard the door open and smiled when he saw Kai come in carrying a mug of hot chocolate. Kai walked over to the two and handed the mug to Ellie.

"Thank you Kai."

"Hn. Drink that and go to sleep. We don't want you getting ill." He said as he ruffled her hair. Ellie smiled at him before returning to her hot chocolate. Kai took the mug from her when she was done and Rei tucked her in. Ellie was asleep before her head even touched the pillow. Rei and Kai quickly exited the room and shut the door quietly behind them. They turned round and Rei nearly jumped out his skin when he saw Tala and Bryan there.

"Can I see Ellie?" Bryan asked. Kai noted the use of the word 'I'; apparently the two still hadn't made up. Rei shook his head.

"Sorry but she just fell asleep. You'll have to wait until morning." Bryan looked downcast when he heard this and Rei would've felt sympathetic for him if it hadn't been partially his fault.

"Okay. Thanks for helping you two." Bryan said before turning round and walking towards the stairs, Tala following. Rei sighed when he saw them pointedly walking on opposite sides of the hallway.

"Honestly, you'd think those two would be mature enough to not forget about everyone else just because they're in the middle of an argument." Rei huffed as he crossed his arms. Kai sighed and wrapped a comforting arm around his boyfriend's waist.

"You would think that, wouldn't you?" Kai said frowning at his friends' backs. _'Thos two had better sort themselves out soon or they're gonna regret it…'_

_Midnight_

Ellie woke up coughing harshly. Her head hurt, she felt unbearably warm and now her throat hurt thanks to her recent coughing fit. Ellie groaned as she felt another coughing fit coming on.

Ellie waited until the coughing had subsided before slipping out of bed, stumbling her way towards the door. She pushed the door open, almost falling over as she did, and stepped into the hallway, revelling at how cool it felt. Using the wall for support, she slowly made her way to the room next to hers. She stopped at the door and was just about to knock when she heard hushed voices. The voices sounded angry and Ellie saddened when she realised that Tala and Bryan were _still_ fighting. Suddenly the voices rose.

"Fine, if that's what you think then I'll go!" Bryan yelled as he yanked the door open. He was just about to storm out when he saw Ellie and stopped. "Ellie?" Bryan kneeled so that they were eyelevel. "Ellie, what's wrong? Did you have a nightmare?" Ellie shook her head.

"Bryan…" Ellie fell forward into a surprised Bryan's arms, her eyes closing as she did so.

"Ellie? Ellie? ELLIE!"

Bryan and Tala looked up expectantly as Murielle came out of Ellie's room. After Ellie had fainted Tala come over to see what all the fuss was about and had immediately gone to get Murielle when he saw what had happened. The two boys had been sitting outside the bedroom ever since the old lady had thrown them out.

"It's nothing serious. She has a high fever but it has gone down and she should be fine with enough rest. I'll go get some medicine on the morning when the pharmacy opens." Murielle informed the two. Bryan sighed in relief.

"Can I see her?" He asked hopefully. Murielle shook her head.

"It's the middle of the night and she really needs to rest. You can wait until morning." Bryan looked stricken.

"But-"

"No buts! Don't you think you've done enough?" Murielle snapped harshly. "Goodnight Master Bryan, Master Tala." With that said, Murielle walked back down the hallway, disappearing as the darkness swallowed her. Tala gently tugged Bryan back into their bedroom and Bryan sank down on to the bed.

"Don't worry; Murielle's always cranky when she gets up." Tala said, putting a comforting hand on Bryan's shoulder. Bryan shook the hand off.

"But she's right! If I hadn't bee arguing with you then I would've remembered to pick Ellie up and she wouldn't be sick!" Bryan said as he clenched his fists. Tala put his hands on his hips and scowled.

"Are you saying that's it my fault that she's sick?" Tala questioned dangerously, his eyes narrowing.

"Maybe I am!" Bryan snarled back as he looked up.

"Now, look here mis…ter…" Tala trailed off as he saw the tears that Bryan was trying to hold back. "Bryan?"

"Before the Abbey I had no idea what was so great about family; not really surprising with my mother. Even after I met you guys I still wasn't to sure about the whole family thing but now… Now, not only do I know about family, I actually have blood related family and, now, because of me… because of me… she's…" Bryan wiped away the tears roughly but they kept coming. Tala softened and wrapped his arms round Bryan, hugging his koibito.

"It's been a long time since you've cried, hasn't it Bryan?" He asked softly as he stroked the boy's lavender hair softly. "Sorry…"

"S'not your fault." Bryan mumbled. Tala smiled before grabbing Bryan's wrist and dragging him towards the door. "Eh? Where ya dragging me, Tala?" The redhead smirked.

"Since when have we ever followed rules?" He said deviously as he opened the door to Ellie's bedroom and pushed Bryan inside, following and shutting the door behind him. Bryan glared at him slightly before tiptoeing over and sitting on the edge of the bed. He gently stroked Ellie's hair. She stirred and opened her eyes.

"Bryan…?" She whispered as she touched his hand. Bryan nodded, a small smile playing on his lips.

"Hey, don't forget about me!" Tala grinned as he sat down on Ellie's other side. She looked up at him in surprise.

"Eh? Have you two made up?" The two males sweatdropped at her surprise.

"We weren't that bad, were we?" Bryan asked. He got his answer when Ellie refused to look him in the eye. "I see…Well, anyway, we have made up. Sorry we acted like such idiots."

"Hmm, you two _are_ idiots." Ellie agreed before smiling. "But you're loveable idiots." She murmured as she nuzzled into Bryan's chest, falling asleep almost instantaneously. Tala and Bryan looked at each other and Tala leaned over and carefully cuddled up to the two siblings.

"She certainly has a way with words." Tala said. Bryan gave a light snort at that one.

"Her way is better than ours." He pointed out. "Do you think Murielle will kill us when she finds in the morning?"

"Probably. And Rei will probably join in on the rampage too." They both shuddered at the thought of a murderous cat.

"Any ideas on how to spend our last night on Earth?" Bryan asked. Tala smirked deviously.

"Oh, I have a few…" Tala pulled Bryan down for a kiss.

"You two, I'm trying to sleep!" The two quickly pulled away.

"Sorry Ellie…"

* * *

**AN: **I hope you liked the latest installment of 'My Little Sister'. Thanks for sticking with it for so long. There are only a few more chapters left so please make the most of them. Thanks to all of those who have reviewed and all of those who are hopefully going to review.

Until next time! Ja ne!


	14. Chapter 14

This is the last chapter of My Little Sister. I was actually planning to drag this out for a few more chapters but I have fully lost my inspiration for this fic so you'll have to settle for this ending instead. I hope you enjoy it!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Beyblade. I do, however, own Ellie and Murielle.

* * *

_**Chapter Fourteen**_

Bryan shifted uncomfortably in the white plastic chair, one hand holding a cup of coffee and the other holding the hand of the figure in front of him. His eyes flickered up briefly as Tala entered the room.

"I'm going back to the mansion to pick up a change of clothes. Want to come with?" Tala asked as he walked over to his lover and wrapped his arms round him in a loose embrace. Bryan shook his head mutely. Tala sighed. "It's not your fault, you know. This would've happened whether you'd been there or not." Tala sighed again when he got no response. "I'll bring you back a change of clothes. Be back in about an hour, 'kay?" Without waiting for a response, Tala planted a kiss on Bryan's temple and left the room.

Bryan waited until the footsteps faded before sighing and reaching up to brush a stray strand of lilac hair out of the eyes of the small girl in front of him. He knew Tala was probably right, he just about always was, but Bryan couldn't help but feel that if he had just been there, if he hadn't left Ellie on her own, then maybe, just maybe, she wouldn't be here in hospital.

Bryan sat back in his chair and closed his eyes as he remembered the series of events that led up to this…

_**Flashback**_

_It was the end of November and the Christmas season was just around the around the corner. Ellie had fully recovered from the illness that had plagued her at the beginning of the month but Bryan was still reluctant to let Ellie go outside. This is probably what started it all._

_Tala was notorious for being extremely organised so it came as no surprise when he said he was going Christmas shopping when it wasn't even December. It was a slight surprise, however, when Ellie asked if she could go with him. The surprise turned into understanding when she explained that she didn't want to do any shopping but to instead go outside and stretch her legs and after a lot of wearing down from Murielle and Tala, Bryan finally relented and agreed._

_The next day they went shopping in central Moscow. It started of okay but after several hours of Tala's indecision and walking backwards and forwards between the same shops looking for a bargain, both of the Kuznetsov's legs were starting to feel the strain. As a result, whilst Tala continued shopping, Bryan and Ellie went to the park to sit down. There were other children in the park around Ellie's age so she went to play with them whilst Bryan sat down on a nearby bench and watched. Across the street, Bryan spied a street vendor selling hot drinks. Without telling Ellie, Bryan stood up to go and get them both a drink._

_Ellie looked up and saw that Bryan was gone. She looked round, starting to panic a little when she couldn't see him. She walked to where she had last seen him and accidentally walked into a woman on her way._

"_I'm sorry…" Ellie trailed off as she looked up. "Mama…" she whispered. The woman looked down and a look of extreme anger and disgust adorned her face._

"_You…" The woman growled. She reached out a hand and wrapped it round the eight-year-olds neck. "How dare you show your face to me, you little bitch? After all I've done for you, how dare you disappear and then waltz back as if nothing happened? How dare you!" The hand tightened with every word._

"_Mama…" Ellie rasped out, barely able to breathe. Mrs Kuznetsov let out an unsightly yell and threw her daughter against the nearest tree. Ellie whimpered as she hit the wood and staggered to her feet unsteadily. Her mother smashed the bottle she was carrying and jumped on Ellie, kicking and scratching, Ellie's skin slicing like bread under the sharp glass. A few of bystanders tried to drag the woman away but she had the strength of a furious wildcat and nobody succeeded._

_Bryan, meanwhile, was walking back, coffee in one hand and hot chocolate in the other. He looked curiously at the big crowd that had gathered and paled as he looked over the tops of the people's heads and saw what was going on. He dropped the drinks and pushed his way through the crowd. He threw his mother of Ellie, not caring about how rough he was being, and stood protectively in front of Ellie. A few men from the crowd quickly grabbed the woman, preventing her from trying to have another go at Ellie. Keeping one distrustful eye on the woman, Bryan knelt down next to Ellie. She was barely conscious and was bleeding profusely from all over. Bryan's fingers ghosted over her cheek. _

"_Bry…" She whimpered before losing all consciousness. Everything after that seemed to blur together for Bryan as an ambulance came and Ellie was rushed to hospital where she was immediately taken to the operating room._

_**End Flashback**_

Bryan opened his eyes again and reluctantly gulped down the rest of his now freezing cold coffee. Upon arrival, Ellie had been diagnosed with several broken ribs, one of which had punctured her lung. Whilst the operation had overall successful, they had discovered that Ellie was allergic to the anaesthetic that they used, setting them back and costing them precious minutes in which they actually lost Ellie's heartbeat. They managed to get her heart beating again but the damage was done. Ellie had been in a coma for just a little under three and a half weeks and there was no sign of her waking up any time soon.

Bryan leaned forward, crossing his arms and resting them on the bed. He rested his head on his arms, one hand in Ellie's and looked at her face. Bryan was sad for obvious reasons but he was also sad that he wouldn't be able to spend Christmas with his little sister. It was going to be their first proper Christmas for both of them but it was now morning on Christmas Eve and Ellie was still comatose. Bryan's eyes teared up slightly and he began to slowly and quietly weep, the fatigue built up over the weeks finally getting to him as he fell asleep.

Many, many, many hours later, Bryan felt something moving beside him. He stirred and his eyes opened, blinking sleep from them as Bryan woke up. He noted a slight weight on his right side and a quick glance in that direction told him that Tala was there, leaning against him as Tala slept with a pile of clothes in his lap that were no doubtably for Bryan. Tala was still sleeping so he couldn't have woken Bryan up. After gently moving Tala so that he could move about without waking his lover up, Bryan set about trying to find out what woke him up.

"Bry…" Bryan quickly snapped his head in Ellie's direction. The girl's eyes were half open, the large bed around her dwarfing her body and making her seem a lot thinner than she actually was.

"Ellie…" Bryan whispered before quickly snapping into action. "Thank God you're awake! Lemme go and get one of the nurses…"

"Bry…wait…" Bryan stopped midstep and looked back at Ellie. Ellie forced herself into a sitting position, muscles weak from disuse, and held up her arms for a hug. Bryan immediately obliged and gently embraced the girl. Somewhere down the hallway a clock chimed twelve times and a smile spread across Bryan's face as he buried his nose into Ellie's soft hair.

"Bryan…"

"Merry Christmas lil sis…"

**The End**


End file.
